Joseph Stannard loves music and he loves film. When he isn’t carrying out his duties as deputy editor of long-running music magazine The Wire, he is investigating the paranormal in sound, vision and real life. “I’ve always been interested in the supernatural, the occult, weird films and music,” he says.

While living in Brighton, Stannard noticed that a lot of contemporary music was influenced by horror, and that many horror films featured experimental soundtrack music. Accordingly he organised The Outer Church, a series of events which combined the two. The event ran, in the UK and abroad, for about five years, and a compilation was also released. After a spell in London, he wanted to get back to the sea and was eventually attracted by the rich occult history of Hastings.

Watching The Stimming Pool at a screening in London, Stannard noted that the Electric Palace cinema, which appears in the film, was a Hastings institution and a perfect venue, and began planning an event series to happen here. His event names are inspired by the work of comic book writer and chaos magician Grant Morrison, who drew and scripted the Vertigo comics series The Invisibles.

The Outer Church and The Invisible College are conflicting forces within the series. Historically speaking, The Invisible College was a name for the group of individuals, including Robert Boyle, who eventually founded The Royal Society. “It’s good to pay attention to synchronicities,” continues Stannard. On his move from an outer church to an invisible college, he remarks “You could say I’ve moved from the ecclesiastical to the educational.”

The first event will screen the 1993 film Body Melt (“There’s a lot of slime and gruesomeness… it’s very splattery, very DayGlo”, he explains) directed by respected film writer Philip Brophy. The film has been called ‘The Substance before The Substance’ – though on a much lower budget – and addresses the horrors of Big Pharma. One highlight of the film is Ian Smith (Harold Bishop from Neighbours) on a gun-toting rampage.

The evening will also feature live electronic sets from US artists Trigger Object and Dream Skills, both of whom make music that is thoroughly in keeping with the themes of Body Melt. “Everything I book is stuff I genuinely love, and hopefully there are like-minded freaks out there who’ll love it too.”

There is also, of course, a considerable tranche of avant-garde musicians in Hastings who might well be interested in this series, which with Stannard’s combination of enthusiasm and expertise, is sure to be a success.

The Invisible College will present as a special event at the Electric Palace Cinema on Sunday 16 August. For more details see electricpalacecinema.com. For a mixtape of some of the music he will use and a track listing, see the version of this article on our website at tinyurl.com/ysc692pt

Joseph Stannard is an enthusiast. He loves music and he loves film. When he isn’t editing record reviews in a music journal, he is exploring the paranormal. “I’ve always been interested in the paranormal, the supernatural, and … weird music as well” he says.

While living in Brighton he noticed that a lot of music was influenced by horror, and that there were also a lot of horror films that featured experimental soundtrack music So he organised something called The Outer Church, a series of events which combined the two. They toured, in the UK and abroad, for about five years. He tried London but wanted to get back to the sea, and was eventually attracted by the rich occult history in Hastings.

Watching The Stimming Pool he realised that The Electric Palace, which appears in the film, was a beautiful Hastings venue, and began planning an event series to happen here. His event names come from the mind of Grant Morrison, who drew and scripted The Invisibles for DC Comics. It turns out in the end that the Outer Church and the Invisible College are actually two sides of the same organisation. Historically, The Invisible College was a name for the group of individuals, including Robert Boyle, who eventually founded The Royal Society.“It’s good to pay attention to synchronicities” continues Stannard. So, about his move from an outer church to an invisible college, he remarks “you could say I’ve moved from the ecclesiastical to the educational.” 

The Invisible Collage Vol I – puts together of some of the music he has assembled for the event (track list at the end of this article) 

The first event will show the film Body Melt (“there’s a lot of slime and gruesomeness, and it’s very splattery, very day glow”, he continues) directed by well-respected film writer Philip Brophy. Essentially the film has been called ‘the Substance before The Substance’ – though on a much lower budget – and features the horrors of Big Pharma, and Ian Smith (Harold Bishop from Neighbours) on a gun-toting rampage.

The evening will also feature live artists Trigger Objects and Dream Skills, both of whom make music that is thoroughly in keeping with this kind of film. “A lot of the stuff I put on is stuff I really love, and if other people like it, then hopefully it will bring out other freaks.” There is also of course a considerable tranche of avant-garde musicians in Hastings who might well be interested in this series of events, which with Stannard’s combination of enthusiasm and expertise, is sure to be a success.

The Invisible College will present as a special event at the Electric Palace Cinema on Sunday 16 August. For more details see electricpalacecinema.com. Mixtape tracklist as follows:

A full house came out in force to see Ben Wheatley’s new film Bulk at the Electric Palace on Thursday 14. The screening was accompanied by a Q&A with the director. Questions were teased out of audience members with a free poster for the first six questioners – which worked a treat!

Wheatley is seen by many as a current leader – perhaps the leader – in British ‘arthouse’ cinema. His films feel steeped in, and deeply connected to, an array of odd British films and TV – notably from the folk-horror genre. They’re also known for blending genres, as in Sightseers and Kill List.

Bulk is no different. Rather than blending genre, however, it’s more like he’s whipped up the film itself in a blender. It jumps around, telling the story of Corey Harlan (Sam Riley) – trapped in an interdimensional world after an explosion tears up reality, searching for the scientist who caused the incident. He’s assisted by Aclima (Alexandra Maria Lara) and occasionally shot at or helped by Sessler (Noah Taylor).

It’s not always clear what is happening, though that’s not a problem. You’re instantly tossed into the film and you’re taken for the ride. The film’s jumpy nature, flinging you around different locations, and its dense ‘sci-fi’ dialogue, could become a bit of a bog which you had to wade through. But, it doesn’t. The film is great fun: funny and entertaining while retaining interest through its unconventional style.

Having established himself as a low-budget, ‘arthouse’ director, with equally experimental films in his pocket like A Field in England, Wheatley is also known to take on big-budget blockbusters. His most recent is one that he refers to as a “big shark film” – The Meg 2. But Bulk seems worlds apart. The special effects resemble Thunderbirds – or any other supermarionation series – and really draw attention to themselves. But this is done with deliberate intent. Wheatley talked about making the effects “so bad that you notice them,” but the effect of that is that you adjust and forget about them.

For all its madness, the film carries you away. You feel, too, his passion for filmmaking. This was made between projects – a TV series and another film. He just “likes making films” and he does it whenever and with whatever and with a lot of passion. A passion that’s shared by the audience.

This weekend, Electric Palace present an Andrew Kötting weekend, a celebration of films by the Hastings-based, internationally recognised filmmaker and artist.

Andrew shares a studio with his daughter Eden on The Ponswood Estate (between Screwfix and Toolstation) from where they send out their creative missives into the world.

He has made numerous experimental short films, many of which have been awarded prizes at international film festivals. Gallivant (1996) was his first feature film, a road/home movie about his four-month journey around the coast of Britain with his grandmother Gladys and his daughter Eden. It won the Channel 4 Director’s Award at the Edinburgh Film Festival for best new director, and the Golden Ribbon Award in Rimini. In 2011, the film was voted number 49 in the list of 100 Best British Films of All Time by Time Out. 

The weekend festival will be kick-started on Friday with a selection of award-winning short films followed by a director’s Q and A, hosted by writer Nicholas Johnson. Saturday sees an exclusive showing of The Memory Blocks, Kötting’s complex docu-essay about his daughter Eden, who has Joubert’s syndrome (a genetic disorder affecting brain development during gestation).

On Sunday afternoon there is a screening of his award-winning film Gallivant. Along with Time Outmagazine, The Telegraph and the BFI, the comedian and writer Stewart Lee has frequently championed Andrew Kötting’s Gallivant as one of the ten best films ever made.

Full details from The Electric Palace website: electricpalacecinema.com. See the entries for the weekend of 22-24 May.

Electric Palace will screen three events as part of the series: a half-term children’s programme, a feature screening of the Trinidad and Tobago drama, Queen of Soca, and a closing night screening of the award-winning Kanaval, accompanied by a live facilitated talkback.

A bold, joyful and emotionally charged feature from Trinidad and Tobago, Queen of Soca follows Olivia – a singer from the slums of Port of Spain – as she battles her devout mother’s disapproval and chases her dream of competing in the country’s biggest soca competition. Featuring a leading performance from Terri-Ann Lyons, Queen of Soca – funny, fierce and full of music – is a film about ambition, identity and the power of culture.

The series closes with Kanaval, a luminous and emotionally rich feature in which nine-year-old Rico – uprooted from Haiti to Canada in the 1970s – navigates a strange new world with the help of Kana, an imaginary friend from Haitian mythology. Following the screening, Hastings-based facilitator Tola Dabiri will lead a post-film talkback, creating a welcoming space to explore the film’s themes of displacement, memory and belonging.

Crossroads is presented by SAVANT Media, led by TTFF director and Hastings resident, Mariel Brown, in partnership with Electric Palace and independent cinemas across the region.

Tickets for all screenings available at tickettailor.com/events/crossroadshastings. The full series also takes place at Depot (Lewes), Towner Cinema (Eastbourne), and BEAM (Hertford)

Beloved by Norwegian audiences, Being Ola is an honest and heartwarming portrait of a thoughtful and gracious man. Through Ola, a 30-year-old man living with a mild learning disability, and his reflections, Bergem tells a universal story of inclusion, diversity, and independence; it shows how being supported will always bring out the best in people.

An impactful film that helps bridge the gap between ‘us’ and ‘them’, the film explores the community that allows Ola and its inhabitants to flourish. A microcosm of what could be if more people around the world were afforded the same opportunity.

In conjunction with the upcoming release, Bergem will embark on a short screening tour of the UK, where she will be hosting Q&A sessions alongside the film’s subject, Ola Henningsen. The film marks the debut UK and Irish cinema release for Oska Bright Film Festival and will be released in partnership with UK distribution and exhibition agency, Tull Stories. 

SYNOPSIS

Ola Henningsen is a 30-year-old man who lives in a small village in Norway with a very diverse group of people. They try to live life at a slower pace in harmony with nature, and their community is founded on values such as empathy, respect, and mutual interdependence.

Ola spends his days working in the workshop, pulling carrots from the ground and chatting for hours with his best friend, Lasse. He generally enjoys his life and is a witty and sincere man who talks openly and honestly about his condition. Conversations and cordial friendships in the village are a highlight of Ola’s daily life, but in the background there’s always the threat of Lasse moving back to Denmark…

Being Ola received universal praise following its release in cinemas across Norway in October 2023 before screening on national broadcaster NRK in 2024. The festival run has included screenings at Denmark’s CPH:DOX, Poland’s Krakow Film Festival, and the Tromsø International Film Festival in Norway. The project has gone on to win several prestigious Scandinavian awards.

Reviews have been glowing, with national outlets like Klassekampen calling the film “a real sunshine story”.

THE DIRECTOR

Ragnhild Nøst Bergem (b 1990) is an award-winning and award-nominated filmmaker (National Norwegian film Award) and cinematographer. She communicates with a distinct and brave voice, with an intimate approach to examining her often vulnerable characters through a lens of warmth and humanity. Through Bergem’s work, we get closer to people who normally remain silent. Her ambition is to help create change in society. Her other documentaries have played in theatres, on television and at film festivals, both in Norway and abroad.

Watch the trailer: youtube.com/watch?v=mOUmJKTKh5o; Film showing: Electric Palace Cinema, Sunday 29 March, 3pm: electricpalacecinema.com/whats-on/being-ola

As a Community Interest Company, the cinema relies on ticket sales and its team of 30 volunteers to maintain its presence on the High Street. This year’s programme reflects that community spirit, offering a mix of relaxed screenings, interactive events and classic cinema.

For families and lovers of the classics, the schedule features heavy hitters of the Christmas genre. It’s A Wonderful Life returns for multiple screenings leading up to Christmas Eve. Elf is back with a competitive twist – the cinema is offering a prize for the best fancy-dressed elf during the run. Meanwhile, The Muppet Christmas Carol will be shown as a sing-along edition, alongside relaxed screenings tailored for a gentler environment.

Beyond the blockbusters, the programme leans into cinema history and local culture. On Sunday 14 December, the cinema hosts Jingle Bells, a nostalgic deep dive into screen advertising. Rob Dean will introduce a selection from his father’s iconic Pearl & Dean archives in celebration of ITV’s 70th anniversary.

Interactive entertainment continues with the return of the Festive Film Quiz on 5th December, and a Christmas Art Show on 14th December, where locals can browse merchandise while enjoying mulled wine and mince pies from the licensed bar.

For those seeking a break from sentimental classics, the cinema is screening Gremlins, remastered in 4K and hosted by former Horror Channel presenter Emily Booth. Indie film fans can also catch indie-director Charles Poekel’s Christmas, Again (not to be confused with the later, Disney Channel, Christmas … Again?) a low-key romantic drama about a melancholy New York tree salesman.

Notably, the cinema remains open during the ‘Betwixtmas’ period. The season concludes with Billy Wilder’s multi-Oscar-winning comedy-drama The Apartment on 28th December, providing a classic screening for residents entertaining visiting relatives after the main festivities have ended.

Tickets and full schedule details are available now via the Electric Palace website. electricpalacecinema.com

SAMUEL ANGUS-SCHOFIELD

While not quite as enchanting as the first movie, Wicked, this film still has a lot of charm, and once again, is carried by its two main leads. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s chemistry is palpable, the friendship between the two characters again being the main appeal of the movie. Grande got big laughs during a very funny fight scene between the two characters, that emphasised the contrast between them.

The sets are fabulous, and make Oz feel like a world outside our own. The Emerald City looks gorgeous and while the CGI can sometimes be a little overwhelming, it didn’t distract me from the good time I was having. I enjoyed the film despite not being, in general, a fan of musicals. While the songs in this film are terrific, the song used at the end of the first Wicked was so good that I was constantly comparing all the songs in this sequel to that wonderful finale. Still, almost all of them were still absolute belters.

My only complaint would be that I wish more time was spent elucidating how the two leads interact with the four iconic main characters from the original 1939 Wizard of Oz. I can understand that the writers may not have wanted to detract from the current story, but it still felt like there should have been more time spent on them as they grouped up to kill the ‘wicked’ witch. 

The film did something that all good movies do, which is to make you want more. At no time was I waiting for the end. Perhaps the best way to experience it would be as a double bill with the first film. That way you’d get the full musical experience. 

Wicked: For Good showed at The Odeon, Hastings from 29 November to 4 December

Halloween is fast approaching, and consequently scary movie season is upon us. One of the best of these, still, is John Carpenter’s 1978 classic: Halloween. Set in the otherwise normal American suburb of Haddonfield, Illinois, monster man Michael Myers returns to his home town to wet his knife with the blood of teenagers and anyone else unlucky enough to cross his path. Sounds like regular slasher movie stuff, right? Well, unlike other slasher movies that came before it, Halloween puts the audience behind Michael’s mask. We stalk Michael’s prey with him, from behind a bush or around corners.

The movie was made with a surprisingly small budget of 300,000 dollars and shot within 20 days. John Carpenter composed a great deal of the score for the movie himself. Without the aid of either a big studio or a big budget, he made one of the most successful horror movies of all time – whether you measure success by critical acclaim, timelessness, or box office earnings. In Halloween, Carpenter made a movie that could (well, almost) have been made by anyone. There aren’t any super expensive effects; all the locations could have been any standard American suburb. Yet (as he continued to do throughout his career) John Carpenter made a timeless thriller that spawned many copycats and wannabes trying to top his original classic slasher movie. In spite of their bigger budgets and bigger baddies, these subsequent efforts don’t elicit for me the same visceral response I had the first time I watched Halloween, many Halloweens ago.

Halloween will be shown at the Electric Palace, High Street, on 31 October at 7:30PM 

If you thought you were full to the brim with Christmas films and box-set binges and couldn’t possibly consume another minute of moving pictures, wait till you see what the local independent cinemas have got lined up for you to enjoy in the bleakest month of the year. We’ve gathered their highlights, to tempt you out of the house… 

Here in Hastings and St Leonards we’re particularly fortunate to have both Kino-Teatr and Electric Palace on our doorsteps, in addition to the multi-screen Odeon for the mainstream. Kino’s programming is more responsive, but we can look forward to the ‘thoroughly fresh’ Queer (18) from Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love), featuring Daniel Craig shaking off his bad-boy-Bond persona as an amorous ex-pat in Mexico City (six screenings between 16th and 22nd). And one of my favourite directors, Andrea Arnold, is back with Bird (15), showing twice on 23rd; ‘a tragedy butting heads with comedy and physical existence facing off with fantasy and imagination’.

In recent years Electric Palace has been closed all January, but this year they have thrown off that tradition and have a full programme! 

My top January pick is their Anime mini-season later in the month, including The Boy and the Heron, the first feature in ten years from beloved Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli’s brightest star and co-founder. Showing twice on Thursday 23 Jan, then Saturday 25 evening, when you can also have a Japanese dinner in situ! Or make a whole day of it by starting with the themed Diorama workshop at 2.30pm. There’s even a Pokemon drawing workshop on Friday 31st.

The B-movie fan club pick for January (last Sunday of every month) is Beginning of the End (PG!), featuring giant grasshoppers. For horror fans a delicious treat: the new 4k restoration of the seminal-epic-classic Carrie (18), showing on 17 January for the monthly Friday Fright Night, and based on Stephen King’s first ever novel. And if you weren’t aware, The Electric Palace offers open-to-all, autism-friendly relaxed screenings – check the website for the February offering.

And that’s not all folks… Try as I might, I simply cannot fit everything in, so if you want to see Watership Down (the proper one), Godzilla Minus One, Head South, The Substance, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie or Snow Leopard, you know what to do.

Electric Palace Cinema is at 39a High Street electricpalacecinema.com and Kino-Teatr is at 43 Norman Road kino-teatr.co.uk – and both offer great email listings.

In the words of musicologist Fredara Hadley: “Black music is the wellspring of American popular music, but at the same time there are industries and societies that often do not value black creators, or they want the blackness toned down”. “Do you know,” continues Little Richard Penniman himself, “that Pat Boone and Elvis Presley sold more Tutti Frutti than I did?” 

Lisa Cortes’ biopic about the extraordinary Little Richard, who lived an absolutely over-the-top, no holds barred existence all his life and still lived until the age of 88, does much more than reference his unique musical career. Narrating his story from childhood in a series of film clips, the opinions of other musicians, producers, friends, musicologists, relatives, all overlaid by the driving energy of his songs and performances, the film interrogates, through a celebration of Penniman’s life, a number of universal truths. It points out the endemic racism still prevalent in the States, the Queerness of Penniman’s performances and persona at a time when this was a complete taboo,  the way Black music and Black musicians and indeed Black dance halls and night clubs paved the way for white rock-and-rollers – “white kids wanted to go to black clubs”- even in the 1950s, at a time when those citizens labelled as ‘coloreds’ were still denied entry to spaces, entrances, professions, positions reserved for ‘whites-only’.

Trailblazer and innovator, Penniman scorches through American cultural history from 1932 to 2020. Even as he embraced religion, married (and later divorced) a woman, then renounced his former life and (for a time) his gayness, he still rampaged through every show, preaching, singing, playing, acting (without pay) at religious meetings and filling them until (by then in his fifties) he returned undiminished to the anarchic brilliance of his earlier performances. 

Indeed the place of ‘Holy-roller’ Christianity in American Black culture is singular, given that it was brought by missionaries to Afro-Americans held in pre-revolutionary slavery. Enslaved Christians meanwhile developed an alternate vision of Protestantism that linked religious conversion to literacy and freedom.  ‘Oh, Freedom, A Change is Gonna Come, Freedom Reigns’. The film shows Little Richard in a direct line from Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Ma Rainey, and the deep well of gospel that enabled him to become the definitive inventor of rock and roll. 

The I Am Everything of the film’s title, while it is a quote from Penniman himself, was clearly chosen by Cortes to emphasise the truth that the influence of Black American music on at least a century of popular music, jazz, rock music, folk music, classical music, is so profound as to be incalculable, and that Black American music springs directly, and is inseparable from, Black American culture, slavery, and oppression. Though some talk glibly of ‘cultural appropriation’ – the film points, essentially, to cultural suppression, and to Richard’s larger-than-life talent as a rocket through White fortifications. Thus we see Penniman’s massive contribution only being, finally, formally recognised in a 1996 awards ceremony. 

If you didn’t catch this film (and the audience was not large) you can rent it from Amazon. If you’re a Prime member, you are paying £2.99 to watch a significant slice of international social history. See it, and think again.