54 min
#009: Jon Spira - Documentary FilmMaker, Video Store Owner and Author Starfish and Coffee
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- Society & Culture
Today’s guest is Jon Spira - a film-maker, ex-video shop owner and an all-round digger of things that only exist in your peripheral vision.
His most recent documentary is called Hollywood Bulldogs. If you’re in the U.K. you can watch it on BritBox (I believe there’s a 7 day free trial available for that and you too can complain to nobody who cares that they have renamed The Avengers as Steed & Peel on there). It documents the rise and many falls of the unsung heroes of the movie industry - the humble stuntman.
Dig around on his site - https://www.jonspira.co.uk - and you’ll also find some great samples of his other work including BFI (British Film Institute) interviews with the mighty Roger Corman, Dario Argento, Neil Gaiman, trailer docs and all sorts of goodies.
Across the hour we discuss (my first career choice in life) being a stuntman, being well paid to fall down a flight of stairs in a wheelchair as an 80 year old woman (true story), Radiohead, the Oxford music scene, video shops, how - despite there apparently being everything available all the time - you can no longer watch Mr. Holland's Opus nor Three Men And A Baby anywhere, pre-code cinema, crying at movies and much more.
This one was great fun… hope you get as much of a kick out of it as I did.
•••
Here’s the official stuff:
Starfish and Coffee is available on all podcast hosting platforms. It would help me out a lot if you were a subscriber wherever that may be and even more so by nudging a friend and their ears in that direction.
My website is here: sionsmith.co.uk
Follow me on instagram.com/mrsionsmith
Follow me on twitter.com/mrsionsmith
And if you’re into what I’m doing, you can support the podcast by ‘buying me a coffee’ at:
www.buymeacoffee.com/sionsmith
As always, be cool to each other…
S
Today’s guest is Jon Spira - a film-maker, ex-video shop owner and an all-round digger of things that only exist in your peripheral vision.
His most recent documentary is called Hollywood Bulldogs. If you’re in the U.K. you can watch it on BritBox (I believe there’s a 7 day free trial available for that and you too can complain to nobody who cares that they have renamed The Avengers as Steed & Peel on there). It documents the rise and many falls of the unsung heroes of the movie industry - the humble stuntman.
Dig around on his site - https://www.jonspira.co.uk - and you’ll also find some great samples of his other work including BFI (British Film Institute) interviews with the mighty Roger Corman, Dario Argento, Neil Gaiman, trailer docs and all sorts of goodies.
Across the hour we discuss (my first career choice in life) being a stuntman, being well paid to fall down a flight of stairs in a wheelchair as an 80 year old woman (true story), Radiohead, the Oxford music scene, video shops, how - despite there apparently being everything available all the time - you can no longer watch Mr. Holland's Opus nor Three Men And A Baby anywhere, pre-code cinema, crying at movies and much more.
This one was great fun… hope you get as much of a kick out of it as I did.
•••
Here’s the official stuff:
Starfish and Coffee is available on all podcast hosting platforms. It would help me out a lot if you were a subscriber wherever that may be and even more so by nudging a friend and their ears in that direction.
My website is here: sionsmith.co.uk
Follow me on instagram.com/mrsionsmith
Follow me on twitter.com/mrsionsmith
And if you’re into what I’m doing, you can support the podcast by ‘buying me a coffee’ at:
www.buymeacoffee.com/sionsmith
As always, be cool to each other…
S
54 min