MovieMorlocks.com – keelsetter

keelsetter

I share the same year of release as The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde, Seconds, Blow-Up, Belle de jour, Cool Hand Luke, Five Million Years to Earth, and Shock Corridor - to name some favorites. As a child in grade school I invited friends over to watch creature-features from the safety of a pillow fort. With Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi as my heroes, I begged my parents not to give me braces so that I could keep my monstrous teeth - an argument that I lost. (And, yup, the image used is of my actual chompers before they were fixed.)

In the late eighties and early nineties I programmed a film series and was able to successfully import a mint-condition 35mm European version of Brazil for its U.S. Premiere (the print was then picked up by Landmark for a national run). I also served as a T.A. and projectionist for the Film Studies Program at C.U. Boulder, and it was during this time that I got both Trey Parker and Stan Brakhage to help on a film short (Tubes of Fire). After that, I wrote some scripts, managed to pitch a concept to New Line in 1995 about a traveling freakshow that was favorably received but ultimately rejected, and spent three years working for Starz cable tv as a script evaluator and acquisitions screener. In 1997 I returned to my university stomping grounds to program The International Film Series - an art-house, calendar film program that's been around since 1941 and that I've personally attended since the seventies.

Subscribe to keelsetter's Feed

Posts by keelsetter

TARZAN FINDS A SON! (And Jane Becomes a Mom)

Posted by keelsetter on May 12, 2013

I wrapped up the TCM Classic Film Festival two weeks ago. It was their fourth fest and my first time there. I’ve been attending Telluride and Sundance for over 20 years, added SXSW to the roster about five years ago, and I like to check in on other film festivals too, be they local (in […]

13 Comments |

submit |

forward to a friend

TO LAUGH, TO CRY, TO SAY GOODBYE.

Posted by keelsetter on April 14, 2013

Last week the film series I program was graced by a visit from Eric Stough, the animation director for South Park. He was kind enough to let me select a recent episode for him to both screen and then provide us with a behind-the-scenes look at how it got made, along with a Q&A session. […]

6 Comments |

submit |

forward to a friend

BILL, THE GALACTIC HERO

Posted by keelsetter on March 31, 2013

I know Harry Harrison for his collaborative work with Wally Wood on EC Comics (circa 1948), his work on the revived Flash Gordon scripts (’58 – ’68), the first of 12 Stainless Steel Rat novels (published 1961), his contributions to The Saint TV series (Harrison did ghost-work for Leslie Charteris on the 1964 novel Vendetta […]

5 Comments |

submit |

forward to a friend

Budget-minded misadventures: 2013 SXSW FILM FEST

Posted by keelsetter on March 17, 2013

My attempt to do the SXSW film festival last year on a small budget was a remarkable fiasco. The round-trip drive had me spending 40 hours on the road, aided in part by a GPS device that would set itself to a default destination every time its suction-mount failed and it fell to the floor […]

7 Comments |

submit |

forward to a friend

Double Trouble: TABU ’31/’12

Posted by keelsetter on March 3, 2013

F.W. Murnau was a German director with some 20 titles to to his credit who moved to the U.S. in 1926 and is known to most cinephiles for Nosferatu (1922), The Last Laugh (1924), Faust (1926), Sunrise (1927), and – maybe, just maybe – the last film he directed before his life was tragically cut […]

1 Comment |

submit |

forward to a friend

Posted by keelsetter on February 17, 2013

The Oscars are around the corner and, as an exhibitor, I’m especially excited about the Oscar Nominated Animation Shorts because this is one of the most popular programs we put on at the film series I program. The contact for the distributor, Neal Block, has also assured all participating distributors that this year the “Animated […]

3 Comments |

submit |

forward to a friend

Best of the Fest

Posted by keelsetter on January 27, 2013

Sundance wraps up its 10-day-long festival today. The films that garnered awards were announced last night in an awards ceremony that clocked in at under two hours and during which over 30 prizes were handed out. Having seen 27 films myself, with only a few clunkers to moan about, I thought I’d be familiar with […]

7 Comments |

submit |

forward to a friend

A Crib Sheet for Sundance

Posted by keelsetter on January 13, 2013

I’m packing my bags today and flying out to Salt Lake City tomorrow. The first stop is the 6th annual Art House Convergence – a yearly meeting of independent and art house movie theater owners and operators that takes place January 14 – 17 in Midway, Utah. The conference will include talks and discussions by […]

3 Comments |

submit |

forward to a friend

Winning Hands

Posted by keelsetter on December 30, 2012

I play weekly poker games, and for the last game of the year – one that we played three scant days ago – I saw my triple-digit potential winnings whittled down to almost nothing, and it all happened in the last hand of the night. Emotions ran high, and there was a lot of chaos […]

8 Comments |

submit |

forward to a friend

The Year in Documentaries

Posted by keelsetter on December 16, 2012

As I put together my Spring arthouse calendar lineup, I find it difficult to choose between all the great documentaries that are vying for attention. When the Academy recently listed the 15 documentaries that made their short-list for the 85th Academy Awards®, it was sobering to think of the 126 titles that had originally qualified. […]

5 Comments |

submit |

forward to a friend

^ back to top

MovieMorlocks.com is the official blog for TCM. No topic is too obscure or niche to be excluded from our film discussions. And we welcome your comments on our blogs and bloggers.