Master of surreal film and spiritual superconductor Alejandro Jodorowsky recently spoke with The Guardian UK covering his unorthodox approach to film-making, the recent crop of pop acts influenced by his work, his friendship with Marilyn Manson and the current cinema zeitgeist. Mr Jodorowsy also drops a few clues as to the nature of his latest project. Check out the full article here!

To conincide with the release of Bastardy on DVD, a limited edition 7" featuring music by Jack Charles has been released and will be available at our upcoming launch at Readings in Melbourne. It's limited to 200 copies and is essential for fans of the film. As a side-note, it was mastered by Mikey Young from local faves Eddy Current Suppression Ring!...

Renowned Australian author Christos Tsiolkas ("The Slap", "Devil's Playground") has written an essay on Jack Charles which is included in the booklet for our DVD release. The Age newspaper reprinted the piece over the weekend in their A2 lieftout and you can view the article here.

Great news for the 1.4 million Channel 31 viewers in and around Melbourne and Geelong with the long awaited announcement of their digital license confirmed by the Rudd govenment after an epic nine year struggle. This will ensure a future for Channel 31's 95 locally produced programs and the removal of the FAIR GO KEV watermark from their broadcasts!

We'd also like to congratulate our friends from Channel 31's The Bazura Project who have been lucky enough to get their cult movie show onto the ABC's programming roster. Lets hope this move brings them the Logie they've always dreamed of!

Siren Visual and Readings Carlton will be hostng a very special event in celebration of the DVD release of BASTARDY - Jack Charles and director Amiel Courtin-Wilson will appear instore to sign copies of the DVD and answer questions regarding the film.

Also available will be a 7" vinyl single containing music by Jack Charles and poetry from noted author/activist Kath Walker. The B-side contains a piece by Jack's old friend Shelton Lea. Jack met Shelton in a boys' home in Ballarat before he was adopted by the Darrell Lea family and went on to become a highly-regarded romantic poet. 200 copies of this limited edition 7" single will be on sale.

It's happening on Thursday 26 of November, 6:30pm sharp at Readings - 309 Lygon St, Carlton, Victoria 3053

Click here for more inforation.

Great news on the local front, with two of our titles nominated in this year's AFI Awards - Lionel (two nominations for Best Feature-length Documentry and Best Sound in a Documentary), while Bastardy received THREE nominations - Best Feature-length Documentary, Best Editing in a Documentary and Best Direction in a Documentary. Good luck to the folks involved!

Some fine words regarding the Siren Visual releases of Genius Party have come through from Ain't It Cool and Twitch Film, with both camps reporting a fine audio/visual experiences! Check out reviews for part one here and here while nice words on part two are here.

Click here to purchase Genius Party.

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Back in the 1960's, Australians tuned in to catch the adventures of an 18th century samurai named Shintaro. Originally titled ONMITSU KENSHI and retitled THE SAMURAI for Australian TV, the low-budget show became a massive hit, with a visit from lead actor Ose Koichi causing pandemonium in cities across the country! 

Since its initial run, THE SAMURAI has become a cult favourite seeing reruns in the 1970s and something of a revival in the 1990s with a new generation discovering the series. Siren is proud to announce the long-awaited reissue of the complete collection which for many years has been unavailable in Australia. As a warm-up for Shintaro's February return, tune into SBS tonight at 8:30 and catch SHINTARO! THE SENSATION THAT SWEPT A NATION which catches up with the program's lead star and examines the legacy and impact of the first Japanese televsion program ever to air down-under!

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