Podcast
Edinburgh Film Podcast
Hosted by The University of Edinburgh · EN
Dr Pasquale Iannone (Lecturer in Film Studies) is joined by staff and students from across the University of Edinburgh as well as guests from the world of film and TV to discuss all aspects of screen media.
11episodes
Episodes
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EFP 76: Writer-director Ben Wheatley on Bulk
Mar 1200:24:06Tap to summarizeHost Dr Pasquale Iannone's guest on this episode of Edinburgh Film Podcast is the acclaimed British filmmaker Ben Wheatley.Since his 2009 debut, the crime thriller Down Terrace, Ben has specialised in highly inventive, unsettling, darkly funny pictures, often written in collaboration with his partner Amy Jump. From the hitman thriller Kill List (2011) to English Civil War drama A Field in England (2013), J.G. Ballard adaptation High Rise (2015) to 70s-set action film Free Fire (2016).Ben's versatility has brought him to the attention of Hollywood. He directed the $130m shark epic Meg 2: The Trench starring Jason Statham and his latest is action film Normal (2025) with Bob Odenkirk.Between these two American projects, Ben made Bulk (2025), a low budget, lo-fi science fiction film featuring familiar faces from the Wheatleyverse - Sam Riley, Alexandra Maria Lara, Noah Taylor and Mark Monero.The film premiered at the 2025 Edinburgh International Film Festival and Ben toured the film at the beginning of 2026, taking in everything from small community cinemas to the biggest screen in the UK, London's BFI IMAX.Before Ben embarked on the tour, he sat down with Pasquale to talk all things Bulk. They discuss the background to the film, Ben's influences, his love of DIY filmmaking and much more.
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EFP 75: Ashley Clark on The World of Black Film
Feb 2400:42:24Tap to summarizeOn this episode of the podcast, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by author Ashley Clark to discuss his new book The World of Black Film (2026).Ashley is a writer, critic and broadcaster. He is also Curatorial Director at the Criterion Collection. His previous roles include director of film programming at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Ashley has curated film series at BFI Southbank and the Museum of Modern Art amongst others. He has written for Film Comment, Reverse Shot, and Sight and Sound, and his first book - on Spike Lee’s Bamboozled (2000) - came out in 2015.Spanning more than a century of film history, Ashley’s new book The World of Black Film is a fascinating, illuminating survey of black cinema through 100 key works. From avant-garde dramas to action thrillers, blaxploitation films to biopics, comedies to war films. Ashley provides sharp, engaging analysis of pictures by Ousmane Sembène, Spike Lee, Gordon Parks, Sara Gómez, Horace Ové, Kathleen Collins, Souleymane Cissé, Steve McQueen and many more.Ashley tells Pasquale about the background to the book and his approach to selecting the 100 films. He also reveals some of the personal memories and connections that feed into the book.
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EFP 74: Professor Jennifer Coates on Nagisa Oshima
Feb 1000:35:00Tap to summarizeOn this episode of the podcast, host Dr Pasquale Iannone goes back to Japan in 1969 to discuss a lesser-known film from the iconoclastic New Wave filmmaker Nagisa Oshima. Oshima is best-known for subversive, controversial works such as the erotic drama In The Realm of the Senses (1976) and the David Bowie-starring war film Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983)The episode focuses on Boy (1969) an earlier picture from Oshima which is based on a remarkable true story. The film follows a con artist couple who travel across Japan with their two young sons. Their main money making scheme involves provoking minor car accidents and feigning injury to claim compensation from befuddled drivers. The eldest boy, 10-year-old Toshio, is trained up by his parents to take part in the scams.Boy was recently released on Blu-Ray by Radiance as part of a box set of Oshima films titled Radical Japan.Joining Pasquale to discuss Boy is Professor Jennifer Coates. Jennifer is Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Sheffield. Her many publications include books such as Film Viewing in Postwar Japan, 1945-1968: An Ethnographic Study (2022) and Making Icons: Repetition and the Female Image in Japanese Cinema, 1945-1964 (2016).Jennifer and Pasquale explore the landscape of postwar Japanese cinema and Oshima’s beginnings as a critic. They then turn to Boy, first placing the film in the context of Oshima’s broader career and then discussing key scenes, commenting on elements such as use of location, voiceover as well as the director’s masterful use of widescreen.
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EFP 73: Leith Kino
Jan 2600:25:23Tap to summarizeOn this episode of the podcast, host Dr Pasquale Iannone reports from Leith Kino, a micro cinema initiative set up by a veritable supergroup of film professionals and enthusiasts. The initiative - which is hosted by bar, restaurant and event space Leith Depot on Edinburgh’s Leith Walk - aims to provide a space for engagement with avant-garde, experimental, arthouse and trash film.Since September 2025, the Leith Kino team have hosted an eclectic series of events, with members taking it in turn to programme screenings. Pasquale went along to their screening of Kim's Video (2024), a documentary centring on a legendary New York video store run by an enigmatic Korean businessman who one day decides to donate his entire collection, not to a University or a museum, but to a small Sicilian town more than 4000 miles away. This is just the start of a stranger-than-fiction story which is crying out for the Hollywood treatment. Before the sold-out screening of Kim's Video, Pasquale sat down with members of the Leith Kino collective. You’ll hear from Tom Johnson, Liam Schell, Morvern Cunningham, Camilla Baier, Soraya Mamiche, Josh Booker, Gosia Bugaj and Fraser Elliott. After the discussion, you'll also hear an extract from the evening's introduction to Kim's Video, provided by Emma Jamieson of Cinetopia, followed by the trailer for the film.If you'd like to keep up-to-date with Leith Kino's events, please see their Instagram or Substack accounts. Their February events include screenings of The Bride Wore Black (François Truffaut, 1968) and Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932).
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EFP 72: Michael Brooke on Zoltán Huszárik
Jan 1200:49:36Tap to summarizeThe first episode of 2026 is dedicated to extraordinary films of Hungarian filmmaker Zoltán Huszárik (1931 - 1981).Huszarik’s shorts and two feature films are dazzling in their formal experimentation and their attention to detail and texture. His work has gone on to influence contemporary filmmakers such as Peter Strickland (The Duke of Burgundy, Flux Gourmet).Huszárik’s small but remarkable filmography has been beautifully restored and released in a box set by Second Run. The set includes the director’s most famous feature, Szindbád, a 1971 adaptation of stories by Hungarian author Gyula Krúdy which centre on the adventures of the titular character, a middle aged dandy and bon viveur played by Zoltán Latinovits.Joining host Dr Pasquale Iannone to talk about Szindbád as well as some of the other films in the Second Run set is Michael Brooke. Michael is a film historian and a prolific author and critic who specialises in central and Eastern European cinema. In the discussion, Michael and Pasquale place Huszárik in the context of other notable Hungarian filmmakers such as Miklós Jancsó and Béla Tarr. They then discuss Szindbád in detail, exploring key scenes from the film such as the memorable restaurant sequence. Michael also provides some fascinating insight into his work on audio commentaries, including his tracks for Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda’s War Trilogy (also for Second Run).
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EFP 71: Professor Sir Christopher Frayling on The Hollywood History of Art
Dec 1600:50:35Tap to summarizeOn this 20th and final episode of 2025, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by Professor Sir Christopher Frayling. Christopher is an internationally renowned educationalist, historian and broadcaster who spent more than 35 years at London’s Royal College of Art as Professor of Cultural History and then as Rector. Across more than five decades, Christopher has published widely on film, literature and the arts with volumes exploring everything from the Middle Ages to the Gothic. He is as a pioneer in the academic study of the Spaghetti Western, with publications such as his 1981 book on the subject and his definitive biography of director Sergio Leone (2000).Christopher tells Pasquale about his latest book The Hollywood History of Art (2025), a mammoth, lavishly illustrated volume from Reel Art Press which explores the ways in which Hollywood cinema has approached the lives (and works) of artists. Christopher explains how the idea for the book came about and how he developed the structure. Discussion then turns to specific films such as Rembrandt (1936), Lust for Life (1956), The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), Love is the Devil (1998) and Frida (2002).
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EFP 70: Professor Sue Harris on Bertrand Blier
Dec 300:37:45Tap to summarizeOn this episode of the podcast, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by Professor Sue Harris. Sue is Professor Emerita of Film Studies at Queen Mary University of London and an internationally-renowned specialist in French cinema. She has also published noted volumes on the Hollywood film musical, film stardom and production design.Sue is a trustee and collaborator of the long-running, UK-wide French Film Festival. During this year’s Festival, Sue sat down with Pasquale to discuss the controversial Oscar-winning French filmmaker Bertrand Blier who sadly passed away in January at the age of 85 and who was the subject of a special tribute.Sue is a foundational Blier scholar, one of the first writers anywhere to take the director’s work seriously. Her first solo authored monograph was a ground-breaking study of his films which was based on her PhD thesis.Blier is perhaps best known for his scandalous 1974 satire Les Valseuses, the story of two young drifters (Gerard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere) who offend and terrorise those they encounter on their wanderings across France.Sue tells Pasquale about the background to Les Valseuses, its reception and its unprecedented box office success in France. They then turn their attention to Blier’s breakthrough film, the offbeat crime picture Buffet Froid (1979) which reunited the director with Depardieu and also featured Blier’s actor father Bernard.
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EFP 69: Camilla Baier on the Golden Age of Mexican Melodrama
Nov 2000:40:39Tap to summarizeOn this episode of the podcast, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by film programmer, researcher and writer Camilla Baier. Camilla is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh’s MSc in Film Exhibition and Curation programme and is also co-founder of the feminist film collective Invisible Women.Camilla discusses Invisible Women’s latest project, a touring film season celebrating the Golden Age of Mexican Melodrama which arrives at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse in late November. The rarely-screened four titles in the Stronger Than Love: ¡Too Much Mexican Melodrama! season are described as ‘emotionally explosive women’s pictures’ and showcase the pioneering work of women filmmakers such as Adela Sequeyro, Matilde Landeta, Ninón Sevilla and Miroslava Stern.Camilla tells Pasquale about her fascinating career in film curation which has taken her across the world, from Germany to Mexico. Discussion then turns to the four films that make up the melodrama season: Nobody's Wife (Adela Sequeyro, 1937), Streetwalker (Matilde Landeta, 1951), Victims of Sin (Emilio Fernández, 1951) and Stronger Than Love (Tulio Demicheli, 1955).The Stronger Than Love: ¡Too Much Mexican Melodrama! is currently touring the UK and will be arriving at Edinburgh's Filmhouse from 22nd November.
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EFP 68: Writer-director Paul Andrew Williams on Dragonfly
Nov 300:25:42Tap to summarizeOn this episode of the podcast, host Dr Pasquale Iannone talks to award-winning British filmmaker Paul Andrew Williams about his new film Dragonfly.Built around two powerful performances by Oscar-nominated actors Brenda Blethyn and Andrea Riseborough, the film is set in Yorkshire and tells of elderly widow Elsie (Blethyn) who lives alone in her semi-detached bungalow with occasional help from carers. Living next door to Elsie is Colleen (Riseborough), a young woman who lives with her dog. When Colleen sees that Elsie’s needs aren’t being met by the overworked carers, she introduces herself to her neighbour and offers to help out. Colleen’s motives start to come under scrutiny, especially on the part of Elsie’s absent son (Jason Watkins).Pasquale spoke to Paul a few weeks after Dragonfly’s UK premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in August. They discuss the background to the film, the casting of Brenda Blethyn and Andrea Riseborough, Paul’s decision to shoot on 16mm film, his collaboration with composer Raffertie and much more.Dragonfly is released in cinemas on 7th November.
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EFP 67: Director Maryam Haddadi on her documentaries Accused Number 41 and Between Us
Oct 2200:25:26Tap to summarizeOn this episode of the podcast, host Dr Pasquale Iannone talks to recent University of Edinburgh filmmaking graduate Maryam Haddadi about her documentary self-portraits Accused Number 41 (2024) and Between Us (2025).Maryam studied the MA in Film Directing at Edinburgh College Art and her graduate film Accused Number 41 focuses on an incident that happened in her native Iran when she was arrested by Guidance Control (better known as the morality police) and falsely accused of dressing provocatively. The film was recently shortlisted for the 2025 Student Oscars - the only film from a Scottish University to make the finals.Commissioned by the Scottish Documentary Institute's Bridging the Gap scheme, Between Us is a tender portrait of motherhood focusing on Maryam and her four year old son Masih. The film recently screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, with more screenings to come in Glasgow and Inverness.Maryam tells Pasquale about her first experiences of filmmaking in Iran and then reveals how her approach to documentary filmmaking was shaped by her time at ECA. Discussion then turns to Accused Number 41 and Between Us.More information on Maryam's work is available via her Instagram profile (@maryamhaddadi.films)
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