Category Archives: Interviews

Interview with “The Stylist” Actress Najarra Townsend [Women in Horror Month 2021]

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Please introduce yourself.
Hi! My name is Najarra Townsend. I’m an actress who has been in the business since I was a kid. You may recognize me from films such as ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW, CONTRACTED and most recently THE STYLIST.

What is it that attracts you the horror genre for your chosen field of creative work?
My love for the horror genre really grew when I realized what a incredible community the genre has. I’ve always been a fan of horror films but once I started making them and meeting the people who continually work in them along with the fans who love them, I really became hooked. Making a horror movie is always exciting because of the filming process with all the heightened emotions and special effects but also, knowing that once the film is released, there is a community who will love it just as much as you loved making it.

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Interview with Filmmaker Eve Edelson [Women in Horror Month 2021]

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Photo Credit: Hans Kellner

Please introduce yourself.
I’m a writer and filmmaker living in the San Francisco Bay Area. I started out in theater, training at the Drama Studio London at Berkeley. At the time, new arrivals were required to either adopt a cat or play in a band. Since I play piano, guitar and bass, and was assembled from parts of previously used bass players, the choice was clear. Since then I’ve crewed on films and made 6 shorts. I run the Weird Film Festival, now in its 7th year. My play Scamoramaland, about people who prank email scammers, produced in San Francisco, was based on my website scamorama.com and my book of the same name published by The Disinformation Company.

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Interview with Horror Director and Video Artist Diana Galimzyanova [Women in Horror Month 2021]

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Photo Credit: Tanya Sush

Please introduce yourself.
My name is Diana Galimzyanova, I’m a filmmaker and video artist from Moscow, Russia.

What is it that attracts you the horror genre for your chosen field of creative work?
I’ve always been a person who’s into dark things, be it music, film, books, or art. I think horror is a liberating genre because it allows you to embrace your dark side without being arrested.

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Interview with Horror Filmmaker Ashlea Wessel [Women in Horror Month 2021]

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Please introduce yourself.
I’m Ashlea Wessel, I’m a writer and director with a love of aesthetically driven horror and a soft spot for stories rife with social commentary. You can watch two of my previous shorts INK and TiCK on ALTER now, and my most recent short, Weirdo is making the festival rounds as we speak.

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Interview with Horror Author Elaine Pascale [Women in Horror Month 2021]

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Please introduce yourself.
I am Elaine Pascale. I have been writing for as long as I can remember. What I write has almost exclusively always been horror. In my “pay my bills life,” I work in academia and the focus is on academic writing, but I do find ways to sneak in some gothic/horror stuff when allowed. I have two grown children and have been happily married for over a hundred years.

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Interview with Director Jenna Payne [Women in Horror Month 2021]

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Photo Credit: Patrick Patton

Please introduce yourself.
I never outgrew my goth stage and have a deep preoccupation with crime and especially murder. My favorite bedtime stories as a toddler were Alfred Noyes’ “The Highwayman,” which – SPOILER – ends in a murder suicide, and “The Little Match Girl.” I read a lot of Michael Crichton in elementary school and loved his movies, especially COMA (but later in life). I came to filmmaking after school, studying journalism in college and even interning for major press organizations in Russia and Belgium. The media industry was imploding, though, as I graduated, so I worked a lot of odd jobs before stumbling into screenwriting and eventually directing in my mid-20s. I like to tackle social issues with my projects but drench them in buckets of blood. I find it very therapeutic.

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Anouk Whissell, Director of “Summer of 84” [Women in Horror Month 2021]

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Please introduce yourself.
First, thank you for the invitation! My name is Anouk Whissell, I’m a writer-director based in Montreal, Canada. I graduated in Traditional Animation, worked in animation studios for 10 years while making short films within the RKSS Films Director Triforce with François Simard and Yoann-Karl Whissell. Together, we’ve made our feature debut TURBO KID, which premiered at Sundance in 2015, where we returned a few years later with our follow-up film SUMMER OF ’84. As a director, I thrive on passion, my love for genre and character-driven stories.

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