Category: Cinema

Be like Insiang

Lino Brocka’s film from 1976, Insiang, opens in a slaughterhouse. Hung by their hind legs, loud squealing pigs meet their end by a decisive stab down the neck. We never meet anymore pigs, alive or dead, later in the film, which means this is but a grisly foreshadowing for things to come. As viewers, we… Continue reading Be like Insiang

New publication [January 2025]

Back in May 2022, I was invited to a lovely workshop organised by Cüneyt Çakırlar at Nottingham Trent University. It was my first time in the ancient, much spruced-up city of Nottingham, the northern English spring gently warmed my cheeks. The workshop would eventually produce a new edited volume, Transnational Horror: Folklore, Genre, and Cultural… Continue reading New publication [January 2025]

‘Between laughter and silence’

Part of the joy of being in the business of teaching and learning is that the learning never quite ends, and if you’re lucky, you get masterclasses from with some of the greatest minds in the business. I was incredibly privileged to attend a personal tutorial session with Professor Catherine Grant recently to work on… Continue reading ‘Between laughter and silence’

Voiceover exercise for Doing Women’s Global Horror Film History

For the second exercise of the AHRC-funded project, I have created an experimental voiceover video that combines an unrelated audio recording with scenes from a horror film, in this case Amanda Nell Eu’s It’s Easier to Raise Cattle (Lagi Senang Jaga Sekandang Lembu, 2017). Amanda’s film is excellent for this exercise; it’s largely devoid of… Continue reading Voiceover exercise for Doing Women’s Global Horror Film History

Pecha Kucha video for Doing Women’s Global Horror Film History

At long last, the world premiere of my first video essay exercise as part of the Women’s Global Horror Film History project funded by the AHRC, led by Associate Professor Alison Peirse. Being a complete beginner, it took me 10 days to learn how to use Adobe Premiere and create a one-minute video! It’s in… Continue reading Pecha Kucha video for Doing Women’s Global Horror Film History

Mystics in Bali: a warning to the western gaze

The following is a piece I wrote for a special issue on global folk horror in Altyazi, the leading Turkish-language film magazine, in a project funded by the British Academy. Other contributors of the issue include Rosalind Galt, Bliss Cua Lim, Gary Needham, among many otehrs. Turkish version here. *** By the 1980s, Bali had… Continue reading Mystics in Bali: a warning to the western gaze

Comments on Alluring Monsters: The Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonization

On 28th January 2022, I was invited to discuss Rosalind Galt’s new book, Alluring Monsters: The Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonization (Columbia University Press) at NTU’s Asian Cinema Research Lab. We had a great audience and Rosalind was superb. The following are my comments on her book, soon to be published in the journal of… Continue reading Comments on Alluring Monsters: The Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonization