Craig Ian Mann
@craigimann.bsky.social
Full-time home video producer, part-time writer and sometimes documentary filmmaker | letterboxd.com/craigimann | chasmfilms.co.uk | 📺 📼 📀
Coming soon from Eureka: Swedish noir! I'm very excited about this set, a labour of love from the acquisitions stage through to production (and all five films are incredible – not a weak one in the lot). Features Ingrid Bergman, Hasse Ekman, Eva Henning & Gustaf Molander. Perfect Noirvember viewing.
Tell you what, starting a Blu-ray label isn't easy (as both me and @eddiefalvey.bsky.social will tell you) but I couldn't be happier with the Chasm Films line-up so far and am excited about our recently acquired fourth title. You can grab the first three here: www.radiancefilms.co.uk/collections/...
Sometimes if you want something doing, you've got to do it yourself. The third Chasm Films release is Jim Mickle's Mulberry Street, featuring a new feature-length documentary on the making and legacy of the film. You can pre-order here: www.radiancefilms.co.uk/products/mul...
Craig Ian Mann@craigimann.bsky.social · 3y agoI guess I could think of something witty as a first Bluesky post but mostly I just want to know when someone is going to release Jim Mickle and Nick Damici’s MULBERRY STREET on Blu-ray.
Eureka Entertainment recently released its latest Masters of Cinema box set, Into the Forest: Folktales At DEFA – and if you are of an age to remember the BBC’s "Tales from Europe", you’re in for a treat...
The Singing Ringing Tree returns, restored, to haunt a new generation
Eureka Entertainment, the leading independent distributor of classic silent/early films in the UK, recently released its latest Masters of Cinema box set, Into the Forest: Folktales At DEFA – and if you are of an age to remember the BBC’s Tales from Europe, you’re in for a treat. This limited edition Masters of Cinema Blu-ray box set, coming in a hardbound slipcase, features newly restored, high definition versions of The Singing Ringing Tree ("Das singende, klingende Bäumchen"), Rumpelstiltskin "Das Zaubermännchen"), Little Red Riding Hood ("Rotkäppchen", The Devil from Mill Mountain…
downthetubes.net
I wrote a little primer on East German cinema for the BFI – ten great films produced by DEFA between 1946 and 1989. Half of them are available on UK Blu-ray (so far, anyway).
10 great East German films
Between the end of World War II and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the weird and wonderful film production line in communist East Germany included sci-fi, westerns, film noir and some uniquely disturbin...
bfi.org.uk
Fairytale Fan? Delighted to show my art for INTO THE FOREST, an amazing collection of vintage fairytale films, & the just announced BENEATH THE TREES boxset! An amazing project to work with @craigimann.bsky.social to illustrate the boxes and interiors for these. info: eurekavideo.co.uk #art
When I joined the website we don't talk about (2009 I guess), Sam Neill was in the habit of following literally anyone who followed him. No pretensions, no questions asked. I guess eventually he couldn't keep up with it, but I always thought that said something about him. Anyway, rewatch Dead Calm.
We're continuing our run of popular German genre cinema at Eureka with Eastern Trails: The Western at DEFA. Putting this one together has been incredibly fun.
Just got my contributor copy of Mario Bava's sensational DANGER: DIABOLIK. Eureka's box set is a thing of beauty, jammed with insightful and entertaining extras. I just knew when I started reading the comic book 45 years ago it would eventually pay off! eurekavideo.co.uk/movie/danger...
I’m staying in a film-themed hotel in Łódź with original Polish poster art on every wall and a Wajda mural painted on the building opposite. It’s the best hotel I’ve ever stayed in and the room even comes with a massive telly… but motion smoothing is switched on so there goes the TripAdvisor review.
You know when you finally see a bonafide masterpiece years after everyone else does and it rightly blows your socks off? Last night I watched Ashes and Diamonds. Holy shit.
Yesterday we announced the second release in the Chasm Films catalogue: Álex de la Iglesia's incredible, blackly comic horror show The Last Circus, replete with a roster of new extras and a director interview. Grab it from @filmsradiance.bsky.social here: www.radiancefilms.co.uk/products/the...
Very sad to hear that Tony Stella has passed away. He was an incredible talent. Here’s my favourite piece of art he produced for us at Eureka, for Cruel Tale of Bushido.
Our new label Chasm Films is set to release its first title – György Pálfi's Taxidermia – later this month, and it's lovely to see that we made it onto @letterboxd.social's latest ShelfLife list. You can pre-order directly from @filmsradiance.bsky.social here: www.radiancefilms.co.uk/products/tax...
Fast Cars and Fresh Kills: on screens and shelves this month • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
The Wachowskis’ pioneering live-action cartoon, a masterwork by Lucrecia Martel and a divisive midnight-movie gem are among the selections in this month’s edition of Shelf Life.
letterboxd.com
The 1984 BBC drama THREADS depicts the effects of a nuclear attack on the working-class city of Sheffield, where hundreds of local men, women and children had volunteered to be extras. [TRAILER LINK] youtu.be/4U5Zb0fqimA
SURVIVORS: THE SPECTRE OF THREADS (2026) TRAILER
YouTube video by Severin Films / Intervision Picture Corp.
youtu.be
Great weekend at Culture Shock festival (by @celluloidscreams.bsky.social). My pick of the retrospectives the Estonian sci-fi noir Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel, my favourite of the new films the Kazakh alien visitation film Stinker. Huge thanks to all who saw Eureka’s The Devil from Mill Mountain, too.
Our feature documentary Survivors: The Spectre of Threads will soon be out in the world as part of the new 4K UHD release of the most harrowing film ever made from @severinfilms.bsky.social. You can pre-order it now (and please do!). You can also grab a traffic warden pin badge while you’re at it.
Threads [3-Disc 4K UHD w/LE Slipcase + Postcard]
“THE MOVIE THAT SCARRED A GENERATION FOR LIFE.”British Film Institute THE WORLDWIDE UHD PREMIERE THREE DISC COLLECTION INCLUDES 7 HOURS OF SPECIAL FEATURESAND BONUS DOCUMENTARYSURVIVORS: THE SPECTRE O...
severinfilms.com
I watched Red Planet on the new 4K UHD from @arrowvideo.bsky.social last night and either it’s actually quite good or I just have a soft spot for films released when I was 10-12 years old, but either way I had a very good time.
Just announced by Eureka, Into the Forest: Folktales at DEFA, featuring five East German Märchenfilme alongside new commentaries, video extras, three animated shorts from the DEFA archives and a stacked book of essays. This has been a dream production project. Pick it up.
The second annual Culture Shock festival (from the folks at @celluloidscreams.bsky.social) kicks off at Sheffield's Showroom Cinema in just two weeks. You won't find more eclectic genre programming – Possession, A Chinese Ghost Story, Dead Mountaineer's Hotel, R.O.T.O.R. – anywhere else.
Culture Shock: Festival of Fantastic Film | Showroom Cinema
Join us for the second edition of Culture Shock: Festival of Fantastic Film, a genre film festival from the makers of Celluloid Screams that celebrates classic and contemporary sci-fi, fantasy, horror...
showroomcinema.org.uk
I've just realised it's been 10 years now since I made my first contribution to a Blu-ray release. I wrote an essay on Wolfgang Petersen's Enemy Mine (still a firm favourite) for Eureka in 2016. A decade later, I'm producing discs for them – all thanks to this underrated little sci-fi film, I guess.
Just been reminded – by an exciting email from Severin – that I forgot to share this piece from the Sheffield Tribune when it was published. We've talked to a lot of people about Threads and our upcoming documentary Survivors: The Spectre of Threads, but this is my favourite interview we've done.
Threads and the making of the Sheffield mind
"The film had genuinely traumatised him in a way that has made him ready for the end of the world at any moment"
sheffieldtribune.co.uk
One of my favourite pieces of art I have ever commissioned, by the exceptionally talented @carlydraws.bsky.social.
carlydraws@carlydraws.bsky.social · 6mo agoHEART OF STONE Bringing classic fairytale vibes in this one, my cover art for 'Heart of Stone' a classic fairytale movie from the DEFA collection at Eureka Entertainment. Gorgeous film! wanted to show those beautiful vintage colours in the art. charcoal and digital colour #art #movies
I've finally got my framed #ArtOfAction poster, featuring my introduction to #TheAdventuresOfRobinHood (1938), on the wall. You can read "Robin Hood And The Stuntman Lost In Time" below. #FilmSky
John Featherstone@johnfeath.bsky.social · 2y agoI had the honour of introducing #TheAdventuresOfRobinHood (1938) at #Sheffield's Showroom Cinema as part of #ArtOfAction season. Here, masterfully reworked as a Q&A by @latereviewer.bsky.social is what I said about one of the greatest stunt teams ever assembled... latereviewer.com/2024/11/26/r...
Picked up the BFI’s new release of Strongroom and absolutely loved supporting feature The Man in the Back Seat. Incredibly nippy at 57 minutes(!), it’s a very tense crime thriller that follows two petty crooks desperately trying to offload their injured victim without getting caught. Great stuff.
Eureka's May titles have just been announced, all of them a total blast to work on: Buster Keaton's masterpiece The General on 4K UHD, an excellent and underseen outing for Inspector Maigret in Maurice Tourneur's Cécile is Dead and Frank Beyer's controversial Trace of Stones, one of DEFA's finest.
Gen Z is reviving DVDs and Blu-rays, with local video rental shops reporting record months and membership numbers as young people embrace physical media. Read more: www.latimes.com/entertainmen...
