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The B Movie Celebration : September 23rd to 25th Franklin Indiana
 www.bmoviecelebration.com

it's time for  the 5th Annual B-Movie Celebration in Franklin, Indiana. It’s time once again to gather and pay tribute to B-Movies past, present and future. As we all know, the B-Movie has had a long and humble tradition beginning with the double features of the 1930s and 40s where a lower-budget production would be used to fill the bottom half of a double bill. Within that time, there were hundreds of low-budget westerns, horror features, comedies and even film noir (“Detour” from 1946, for example) filled screens and entertained audiences as companies like Republic, Monogram, PRC and Lippert kept them coming.

The drive-ins came along in the late 40s and 50s and soon more companies came to meet the demand like American International Pictures, who were best known for their monster flicks, teenage juvenile delinquency pictures, sci-fi epics and beach party movies. What’s more, many budding film talents found their first work in these conditions, often working for the man who would be called “King of the B’s,” Roger Corman. This would continue on through the 60s and 70s as people like Peter Bogdanovich, Monte Hellman, Jack Nicholson, Allan Arkush, Joe Dante, James Cameron, Ron Howard and many more.

The 80s and 90s saw another boom in the B-Movie business with the arrival of the videocassette. Now, movies could be brought straight to video for the home market and still more prominent names appeared to produce these direct to video features. Even so, there were still lower budget pictures brought to the theatres and have earned massive cult followings, including Stuart Gordon’s “Re-Animator” and Joseph Ruben’s “The Stepfather.” Other prominent names to appear during this period include Charles Band’s Empire and Full Moon companies, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus’ Cannon Films and two people who we are honoring at this year’s celebration, Fred Olen Ray and Albert Pyun.

This little history only scratches the surface of the vast history of theB-Movie’s influence and popularity. Some have said that the B-Movie is dead, but they’re wrong. Outlets like the SyFy channel regularly show lower budget pictures from people like B-Movie Celebration favorite Jim Wynorski and the Asylum company, which regularly produces well-received science fiction and fantasy items for the SyFy channel and for the DVD and Blu Ray market.

The B-Movie Celebration honors all those traditions from then to now. Here you’ll find late night TV perennials like Ib Melchoir’s “The Angry Red Planet” (1959) and the first in the series of popular films featuring “Francis, The Talking Mule.” You’ll get pioneering black efforts like the black vampire movie “Ganja and Hess” and Fred Williamson’s “Boss Nigger.” You’ll get underground films from John Waters (“Desperate Living”) and 80s classics like “Fright Night,” “Night of the Comet” and “Killer Klowns From Outer Space,” all of which feature significant creators on those films on hand to introduce the screening and talk about the film.  The Chiodo Brothers will all be at their respective screenings to chat with you about their work.

We are also looking toward the present and the future in B-Movie filmmaking with films not just from the USA, but around the world. We have films from Finland (Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, critically acclaimed by Roger Ebert and others), Spain and Australia, among many others. And we have several world premieres as well: Fred Olen Ray’s “Dino Wolf,” Albert Pyun’s “Tales from an Ancient Empire,” “Night Beast”  and still more, more, more.

Plus, we have a massive guest list roster this year, which means you get to talk to the filmmakers and learn from them. In addition to the Chiodos, there’s B-movie mavericks Fred Olen Ray and Albert Pyun, scream queen Debbie Rochon, drive-in movie critic Joe Bob Briggs, “Cashiers Du Cinemart publisher Mike White, Angry Filmmaker Kelly Baker, hosts Jim O’Rear and Bryan Wilson and still more. The B-Movie Celebration also offers many seminars with experts to talk about the art of screenwriting, directing and other aspects of the filmmaking process. So not only can you watch a lot of great movies, you can learn a whole lot, too.

And we can’t forget the Golden Cob Awards in which the cream of the crop of B-Movie talent is awarded and honored for their work. This, like every aspect of the B-Movie Celebration, continues to grow and expand every year with recipients of the awards present to take their slice of B-Movie glory.

That’s the B-Movie Celebration. 3 days of basking in the glow of killer B-movies and hanging out with many of the stars and filmmakers. There’s networking opportunities, lots of star gazing and loads of movies to see. We are proud once again to bring you an experience in B-Movies that we hope will enrapture you and enthrall you. So let the B-Movies begin and let a weekend of cinematic fun and excitement commence!