COCKFIGHT: First Look at New Book by Kier-La Janisse from Spectacular Optical

Editor, News; Toronto, Canada (@Mack_SAnarchy)
COCKFIGHT: First Look at New Book by Kier-La Janisse from Spectacular Optical
Author Kier-La Janisse is preparing to release her new book, Cockfight, an in-depth study of Monte Hellman's 1974 film Cockfighter. Screen Anarchy is very pleased to be the first to share with you the cover for her new book. We also have a small selection of images from the production and included the trailer, which has a wee bit of nudity in it apart from scenes of cockfighting. 
 
Cockfight is the fifth book from Canadian micro-publisher Spectacular Optical (Lost Girls, Yuletide Terror, Satanic Panic and Kid Power!). An Indiegogo campaign launches tomorrow where you can preorder Kier-La's new book. The funds raised go towards completion funds, image rights and printing costs. There will be any number of incentives attached to different packages including copies of Cockfight signed by Hellman and the producer, the legendary Roger Corman.
 
You can sign up here at Indiegogo to keep up with the campaign when it launches tomorrow, Tuesday, May 22nd
 
COCKFIGHT:
SILENCE, RITUAL AND THE (DE)CONTRUCTION OF MASCULINITY IN MONTE HELLMAN’S COCKFIGHTER (1974)
 
Crowdfund launches for the new book from HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN author Kier-La Janisse
 
Canadian micro-publisher Spectacular Optical will be launching an IndieGogo campaign on Tuesday May 22 for its fifth book, exploring the intersection of Southern Gothic, second wave feminism and ritual masculinity in Monte Hellman's controversial drama COCKFIGHTER (1974). The book will be a blend of cultural criticism and production history as well as an examination of the Charles Willeford novel and the bloodsport that inspired it.
 
COCKFIGHTER stars character actor Warren Oates as Frank Mansfield, a career cocker who has taken a vow of silence until he can win the Cockfighter of the Year Award. Surrounded by fellow cockers played by Harry Dean Stanton, Ed Begley, Jr, Steve Railsback, Richard B. Schull and even author/screenwriter Charles Willeford himself, the film traverses the underground cockfighting world of the Deep South, with a highly detailed documentation of this unique subculture brought vividly to life by esteemed cinematographer Nestor Almendros. 
 
The book features interviews with director Monte Hellman and producer Roger Corman – who will sign special edition copies of the book available only through the IndieGogo campaign - as well as several other surviving cast and crew. 
 
Author Kier-La Janisse broke new ground in film criticism with her 2012 book House of Psychotic Women: An Autobographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films (now in development as a series with Rook Films), and this new monograph – for which the author attended several real cockfights in the American South - is also a labour of love whose appeal promises to transcend the fanbase for the film itself. “Monte Hellman has made films he likes much better than Cockfighter,’ says Janisse, “But Cockfighter was always the one that resonated with me; primarily its emphasis on a stubborn, meticulous anti-hero who wants to be the best at something that others consider foolish at best, or barbaric at worst.” 
 
Special perks for the IndieGogo include belt buckles, a Cockfighter-themed deck of cards, an original cockfighting gaff necklace designed by silversmith Ben High and a signed deluxe edition that comes with the Cockfighter of the Year medal as depicted in the film. The Indiegogo campaign runs through June 22 with its goal going towards completion funds, image rights and printing costs. 
 
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Kier-La JanisseSpectacular Optical

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