How much do you know about one of the world's hugest film industries? Get ready for a night of surprise, excitement, and the introduction to a wonderful new world! Bollywood films had so much more to offer than many people realize, and Todd Stadtman, author of the brand new book Funky Bollywood: The Wild World of 1970s Indian Action Cinema, has made it part of his mission to not only keep these films alive, but also to introduce them to a new and diverse audience.
This event will include a WONDERFUL collection of clips from various films highlighted in Stadtman's book. It will be a delightful sample tray of cinematic Bollywood glory, followed by an introduction and discussion with Stadtman himself. The event is FREE OF CHARGE, but remember to bring money for your own book signed by the author!
In a review of the book, Sidharth Bhatia of India's newpaper The Hindu called Stadtman's book "a must-have for not just the casual browser but also the more serious student of Hindi films who is interested not just in individual movies but also, so to speak, the big picture."
Todd Stadtman: Author’s Statement
I began blogging about cult cinema in 2007. My choice of cult cinema as a subject can be explained as arising from a combination of my love of film in general and a longtime fascination with the obscure, the neglected, and the under-appreciated. This perhaps because I had long ago resigned myself to being a talented and special person who was destined for obscurity and thus felt a deep kinship with such things.
It also has to be said that, when I started, there was a lot of writing about fringe cinema on the internet that was clever and delightful, but there was a also a lot that was ignorant, chauvinistic and snarky. It seems that people found “B” movies and genre pictures—especially foreign ones--to be something they could easily condescend to, and condescension being to the internet as coal was to the boilers on the Titanic, thus a desirable topic.
I decided to do something different, instead turning my sights on far flung national cinemas that were either dismissed or ignored by other writers and engaging with their output in the thoughtful manner that they deserved… even when it could be soundly argued that they did not deserve it at all. There were also jokes.
The films of Bollywood quickly became a favorite topic of mine, due in no small part to an enthusiastic response from the robust community of English speaking Indian cinema fans and bloggers here and abroad. Thus, when it came time for me to turn my back on the vast potential audience offered me by the internet to seek immortality in the exciting world of print, I chose Bollywood as my subject—the action films of the 1970s in particular. The result was my book Funky Bollywood: The Wild World of 1970s Indian Action Cinema, which was published by England’s FAB Press in the Spring of 2015.
When I am not tirelessly promoting myself and Funky Bollywood, I continue to write for my blog Die, Danger, Die, Die, Kill! and occasionally for the venerable cult film site Teleport City. I also act as co-host of the Podcast on Fire: Taiwan Noir and Infernal Brains podcasts, as well as the musical radio program Pop Offensive (http://www.9thfloorradio.com/
Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/
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