Here is a nice interview I did after the show of "Brand Upon the Brain" in Portland for the Oregonian. - Karen

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Interview: Karen Black, the ultimate indie actor

Posted by Mike Russell October 14, 2007 15:19PM

Categories: Top Stories

Legendary actress Karen Black ("Nashville," "Five Easy Pieces") popped into Portland Saturday to do live narration on the Cinema 21 screenings of Guy Maddin's silent film, "Brand Upon the Brain!" She was absolutely hilarious as the emcee of Maddin's psychosexual memory play - which includes a domineering mother who monitors her children from a lighthouse; a reanimated corpse for a father; and a sister who falls in love with a famous girl detective as the kids tried to solve a mystery involving orphans with holes in their skulls. (Did I mention that Maddin is an experimental filmmaker?)

Black was especially giddy when interpreting the voice of Maddin's onscreen mother as a nagging cacophony of guilt trips and hysterical moans. She's one of a series of live narrators on the film's traveling road show; others have included Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson and Crispin Glover.

Black, 62, has earned a reputation as the hardest-working woman in show business; she made seven movies in 2003 and five this year; she's jetting from Portland to Washington, D.C. for a one-woman show. Her refusal to slow down has garnered her some disparate cult fan bases: She's approached by Altman fans and horror aficionados, the latter thanks to her turns in fare like "Trilogy of Terror" and "House of 1000 Corpses."

To read more of this interview, click here:
Karen Black interview in the Oregonian

Stephen Eckelberry, my husband, has a new film - "The Mirror," which is in competition at the Hollywood Film Festival. It screens next week, Friday October 19th at the Arclight in Hollywood. 7 PM.

It's a dark -comedy/murder-mystery about a young woman (Erin Cahill) who discovers that the mirror in the bathroom of her parent's home (played by Kelly LeBrock and Thaao Penghlis) is actually double-sided, and that there is a secret room behind the mirror. She starts spying on her parents and their friends, meanwhile uncovering the mystery as to why the mirror was built in the first place.

It's an extraordinary film, I don't think you ever seen anything quite like it!

Tickets are going fast, so call the Arclight at (323) 464-4226 or buy tickets online:

THE MIRROR tickets online

Karen

I'm off to Seattle in a couple of days to narrate director Guy Maddin's Cannes Film Festival Award winning SILENT FILM,

Brand upon the Brain!

This is such an interesting event from the imagination of a man who's won the U.s. National Film Critics award TWICE for best U.S. experimental film of the year: the event is the showing of his silent film supported by myself, a live orchestra and sound effects created right there on stage!

I'm following in the footsteps of others who've narrated for Mr. Maddin, such as Isabella Rossellini, Geraldine Chaplin, and Alanis Morissette.

http://www.branduponthebrain.com/

Then I fly to Washington D.C for An Evening with Karen Black wherein I speak about my life and sing a few songs for the Ganymede Theatre Festival taking place there! That's October 19th.

http://www.ganymedearts.org/

- COMING UP -

Dorsay Alavi, the David Lynch prodigy, has turned her comedy television pilot into a movie and her troupe of actors- including moi- will be improvising Better People, A Curb Your Enthusiasm style comedy about a group of people who've won the right to 'become better people' by enlisting in all kinds of therapy, the grand mixture of which is supposed to somehow, help!

Cam Archer's new film Pull, with Rickie Lee Jones!

Jonathan Caouette's next film (untitled), that brilliant young director who was nominated for a Spirit Award, Best Director, in 2005!

This coming April and May I'll be doing legendary playwright Ernest Thompson's play, Ax of Love, in Boston. Mr. Thompson wrote, On Golden Pond, and we are looking forward to a possible early fall Off-Broadway opening.

COMING OUT-

Come one come all and see director David Siqueiros' new film One Long Night showing at the L. A. Latino Film Festival, co-starring with John Seda, Alison Eastwood and Ed Begley, Jr.

At the Arclight Cinema 13 at 7:30 pm on Oct 13th.

Calle the Arclight box office for tickets.

Also a lovely documentary with Alan Cummings and Debra Winger for the gifted and very young director Jennifer Elster (Particles of Truth).

Henry J's latest film Irene in Time with the splendiferous Tanna Frederick coming out early next year, and

- finally a great small film by Russell Brown, The Blue-Tooth Virgin, coming out, again, early next year. Russell is a real find; his last film, Race to the Bottom, received an amazing rave review from Kevin Thomas!~

That's not all there is, but that's all for now.

Love and good wishes,

Karen

..After Brand Upon the Brain! I am flying directly from West Coast to East -Portland Oregon to Washington DC, where I am performing live the World Premiere of my new one woman show "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Sing the Song".

That's on Friday, October 19th. It's for a great cause, raising money for Ganymed Arts, a GLBT Arts festival. I look forward to seeing you there!

http://www.ganymedearts.org/

Next week I am performing two shows of Guy Maddin's BRAND UPON THE BRAIN.

Guy made an amazing silent film that is then projected on the screen with music from a live orchestra, sound effects by a sound effects crew and a narrator, in this case, me!

I will be in Seattle on Wednesday the 10th, and in Portland, Oregon on (correction!) Saturday the 13th.

For more information, go to

http://www.branduponthebrain.com/

or visit the myspace page,

http://www.myspace.com/branduponthebrain

Hope to see you there!

Karen