Top film director comes to Hastings

Published May 2013

Honey I Shrunk the Kids writer Brian Yuzna will interviewed on stage at Duke’s cinema at the Komedia in Brighton and then visit Hastings later this month.

The prolific film producer/director has been invited by the University of Brighton’s Faculty of Arts in collaboration with Cine Excess International Film Festival.

Yuzna, who lives in California, worked on productions including Re-Animator and Necromicon and most recently Amphibious 3-D in 2010. During his visit to the UK he will present a remastered screening of his directorial debut and classic cult film Society, as well as giving a careers talk to media students at the university’s Hastings campus.

The students will present short films they have written and produced and Yuzna will offer feedback.

Following the screening on Thursday 23 May at 9.15pm, Yuzna will be interviewed on stage by Cine Excess Director and author of BFI’s 100 Cult Films, Dr Xavier Mendik.

Dr Mendik was recently appointed a lecturer in film studies at University of Brighton and will lead the new Digital Film BA(Hons) degree at the university in Hastings from September 2013

Brian Yuzna has been producing cult exploitation films for quarter of a century in the spirit of Roger Corman. His production of Society, released in 1989, is described as “a deliciously dark satire on the darker underbelly of modern life,” in which a young man, Bill Whitney, (played by Billy Warlock of Baywatch fame) feels alienated from his family and decides to investigate his past, with chilling and disturbing results.

The visit is one of a number of new initiatives linked to the recent relocation of the Cine-Excess festival to the University of Brighton’s Faculty of Arts. These also include the launch of the new industry into academia Cine-Excess E-Journal, which is due for release this month (May 2013).

The event is for 18s and over only. Tickets are available from the online box office or by calling: 0871 902 5728