We are incredibly honored to welcome genre film superhero Kier-La Janisse to the AGFA advisory board.
If we wrote 52,000 words about the importance of Kier-La Janisse’s influence, it still wouldn’t be enough. From her tireless work as a film programmer to her current projects with Spectacular Optical and the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, Janisse’s renegade spirit and passionate drive has altered the world’s perspective on horror and exploitation movies. With the release of the autobiographical HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN (Fab Press, 2012), Janisse gifted us with the most essential genre film book of the twenty-first century.
Today, the AGFA advisory board consists of Alamo Drafthouse founders Karrie and Tim League, filmmakers Paul Thomas Anderson, Anna Biller, Frank Henenlotter, and Nicolas Winding Refn, musician RZA, exploitation film savior Lisa Petrucci, and genre superheroes Zack Carlson and Lars Nilsen. We’re proud to welcome Kier-La Janisse to the fold.
“I’m hugely honored to be joining the AGFA advisory board in such esteemed company,” says Janisse, “When I worked with the Alamo Drafthouse in their ‘wild west’ days, I would see my colleagues literally rescuing films from the trash, driving across the country to pick up huge lots of abandoned 35mm prints as regional warehouses began to downsize and storage fees had long since stopped coming in. Many of these are truly orphan films, never having been properly catalogued let alone properly archived and restored. The work that AGFA does in reactivating the forgotten corners of film history — specifically in regards to those regional films that are true discoveries of outlaw filmmaking — is an important contribution to our continuing understanding of this country’s diverse reflection in the movies.”
There are very few people that we love, admire, or respect as much as Kier-La Janisse. Her friendship, knowledge, and advice will be an inspiration as we embark on the next phase of AGFA’s existence.