Charity Film Screening – ‘Clive Barker’s Hellraiser’, 35th Anniversary
We have been talking with Ian Swanson about this screening since its conception, and have chatted about it on the podcast, but here are the details, straight from the press release. It’s in Grand Rapids, MI, and the best part is the funds benefit Don Bertram’s Celebrate Imagination program, benefitting the “Arts In Medicine” program at Texas Children’s Cancer Center.
Below is the Press Release
Celebrate Imagination – Don Bertram, RpH, Houston, TX
Grand Rapids, MI (09/05/2022) — Spector Street Theatre Company presents: 35th Anniversary of ‘Clive Barker’s Hellraiser’. All proceeds benefit Don Bertram’s Celebrate Imagination supporting the Arts in Medicine Program at Texas Children’s Cancer Center. Pre-recorded event introductions by Don Bertram, and Nicholas Vince, actor ‘Hellraiser’ & ‘Hellbound Hellraiser’.
Sun., Sept. 18, 2022, 6:00 pm. Wealthy Theatre, 1130 Wealthy St SE, Grand Rapids, MI, 49506. Sponsored by Grand Rapids Comic-Con & Tardy’s Collector’s Corner. $5 advance, $8 at door. A raffle concludes the film to win rare & uncommon merchandise from the ‘Hellraiser’ franchise.
Spector Street Theatre Company, in association with Clive Barker Podcast, “the only podcast dedicated to the imagination of Clive Barker”, is proud to present to the communities of West Michigan a charity film screening of ‘Clive Barker’s Hellraiser’ celebrating the 35th anniversary of its US release date, September 18, 1985, in benefit to Don Bertram’s Celebrate Imagination.
Don Bertram’s Celebrate Imagination is a program dedicated to and inspired by the children in the Arts in Medicine Program at Texas Children’s Cancer Center. “Using “art as a healing tool” has always been a passion of the artist.” All proceeds from the 35th anniversary screening of ‘Clive Barker’s Hellraiser’ go directly to support Bertram’s work with the children’s program.
We are proud knowing that our event helps “bring smiles and compassion to children when they might need it most”. Bertram, a longtime friend of Clive Barker and advocate of his art, “has played an active role in brightening the waiting room experience through fun, artistic adventures with the children” at the Arts in Medicine Program. “We believe in Bertram’s mission and wish to do our part in providing a creative escape, and a few grins, to the patients at Texas Children’s Cancer Center.” “So, welcome to the whimsical, endearing, and unusual world of Don Bertram.”
DON BERTRAM, CELEBRATE IMAGINATION:
“The art of Don Bertram is an escape into a dream world where cats and mice are friends and bunnies ride in hot air balloons. His ability to transport the viewer to a place where imagination and creativity grow is what makes Bertram’s work with the Arts in Medicine Program at Texas Children’s Cancer Center so important and worthwhile to the children. He visits the hospital monthly to transform the waiting room into a jungle of surprises with creative projects and his big heart.”
“On Bertram’s visits to the clinic, he brings several of his own paintings to help ignite the children’s imagination. His goal is to send them on their own artistic journey, using art as a “healing tool”, so they might not feel the symptoms or stresses of their own health issues for a moment. Ultimately, Bertram sees a twinkle in a child’s eye that comforts his successes and inspires him in his own artistic endeavors.”
Don Bertram is a self-taught artist whose numerous accolades for his work include ‘Safeway’s Community Hero Award’, Houston, TX, multiple news and television appearances, and a paver denoting his program on the terrace of the American Pharmacist Association, Washington D.C.
Don Bertram’s Celebrate Imagination, longtime supporter and sponsor of Clive Barker Podcast for over five years states, “It is my pleasure to support what I believe to be a very important part of keeping the art (books, plays, paintings and all the rest) of Clive Barker in the public mind and eye.” “You and I do these things as a “labor of love” and that makes them extra special.”
Together with twin brother Ron Bertram, Don has written three books, ‘Celebrate Imagination’, ‘The Imaginaries’ & ‘The Chimney Sweep’s Tale’, that support Don’s program for the children. A number of ‘The Chimney Sweep’s Tale’ are available to purchase at the event. All proceeds of its sale will go to the children at the Arts in Medicine Program at Texas Children’s Cancer Center.
Actor, Nicholas Vince joins us, via a pre-recorded introduction, to tell a couple of stories about the making of the film, some discussion on the queer subtext underpining Hellraiser’s story, and to introduce it to anyone, “Hellraiser virgins” as he lovingly calls them, who’s not seen it before.
NICHOLAS VINCE:
“Nicholas Vince played The “Chatterer Cenobite” in ‘Clive Barker’s Hellraiser’ & ‘Hellbound: Hellraiser II’ and “Kinski” in ‘Clive Barker’s Nightbreed’. At the end of 2019 he performed his autobiographical one man show, I AM MONSTERS!” “about the origins of Hellraiser’s Chatterer, stories from the sets of the Hellraiser, Hellbound, Nighbreed and more” “at the Pleasance Theatre, London as part of the London Horror Festival, and to a sell out audience in Las Vegas. He’s currently working on a feature film version of the show. Since October 2020 he’s hosted The Chattering Hour where he interviews famous guests from the genres of horror, thrillers and suspense.”
”He’s written and directed three short films. The Night Whispered and Your Appraisal which screened in the UK, USA and France. His third film, Necessary Evils will be included as a DVD extra on For We Are Many from Hex Media. In addition he’s created two music videos, plus a short film for the Soska Sisters Blood Drive. He stars in the independent feature films, They’re Outside, Hollower and The Offer (dir. Chris Griffiths & Gary Smart). He features in Heckle, Paintball Massacre, Borley Rectory, For We Are Many, The Black Gloves, Book of Monsters, Can’t Kill This. He’s starred in numerous short films including the award winning Mindless.”
“His two collections of short stories, What Monsters Do and Other People’s Darkness are both available on amazon sites; and his short story ‘Prayers of Desire‘, a new origin story for The Chatterer was published as part of Hellraiser: Anthology – Volume 2 published by Seraphim Inc. He was awarded a Lifetime of Torment Award at Texas Frightmare, the London Horror Society Award for Outstanding Contribution to UK Independent Horror, plus a Dedication to Horror award from the Liverpool Horror Club.”
HELLRAISER
RAFFLE DRAWING:
Guests are encouraged to arrive early to enter a raffle for a chance to win rare and uncommon ‘Hellraiser’ items, from Martin Mercer, Peter Atkins, Don Bertram, Clive Barker Podcast, Encyclopocalypse Publications, Pyramid- Gallery, Configuration Boxes, and Spector Street.
Raffle tickets available at the event. $2/1 or $3/5. All proceeds benefit Don Bertram’s Celebrate Imagination supporting the Arts In Medicine Program at the Texas Children’s Cancer Center.
Grand Prize: Original Cenobite concept drawing for ‘Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth‘ unused for the film, by Image Animation’s Technician, Martin Mercer, Illustrator Storyboard and Concept Artist for Film and Television Industry, hand signed and given a specially designed certificate.
Runner Up: Earthling Publications ‘The Hellbound Heart’ 20th Anniversary Edition, and ‘The Hellraiser Chronicles’ signed by ‘Clive Barker’s Hellraiser’ ‘Hellbound: Hellraiser II’, ‘Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth’, ‘Hellraiser IV: Bloodline’ and ‘Wishmaster’, Screenwriter, Peter Atkins.
Additional Prizes: Pyramid-Gallery – Lament Configuration “Music Box”, Configuration Boxes – “Servants Box”, Clive Barker Podcast – ‘Hellraiser’ & ‘Nightbreed’ T-Shirts, Encyclopocalypse Publications – ‘Hellraiser: Bloodline – The Original Screenplay’ & much more to be announced.
PETER ATKINS:
“Peter Atkins, was born in Liverpool, England on 2 November 1955. He was a founder member of The Dog Company, a 1970s avant-garde theatre group, along with Clive Barker and Doug Bradley – with whom he would later work on the Hellraiser movies.” As well as his movie and TV work, he is the author of the novels ‘Morningstar’, ‘Big Thunder’ and ‘Moontown’.” “His short fiction has appeared in such best-selling anthologies as ‘The Museum of Horrors’, ‘Dark Delicacies II’, and ‘Hellbound Hearts’, and has been selected eight times for one or more of the various ‘Year’s Best’ anthologies. He is a three-time nominee for the British Fantasy Award, most recently for his collection ‘Rumors Of The Marvelous’.”
MARTIN MERCER:
“Martin entered the film industry at 18 as a trainee for Oscar winning SFX supervisor George Gibbs. Moving on from models and effects he entered the prosthetic and creature field working at Pinewood studios for 5 years, it was here he met Clive Barker on ‘Nightbreed’, Clive would eventually give Martin his break in storyboarding on ‘Lord of Illusions’ in Los Angeles. Martin continues to develop his skills in cinematic storytelling and visual design.”
CLIVE BARKER:
“Clive Barker is an English playwright, author, film director, and visual artist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the Books of Blood, which established him as a leading horror writer. He has since written many novels and other works. His fiction has been adapted into films, notably the Hellraiser series, the first installment of which he also wrote and directed; and the Candyman series. He was also an executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters, which won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.”
Referencing Stephen King’s famous quote introducing Clive Barker to the word in the 1980s,
“I have seen the future of horror and his name is Clive Barker”,
Tiffany Naiman: Do you think the future of horror is queer?
Clive Barker: “I think the future of everything is queer…
“I think we’ve got to stand up for the complexity of who we are. There’s an English phrase which you won’t know but, ‘All the world is queer save thee and me, and you are a little queer.’ That was taught to me by my mother at the age of four. She did not know the subtext of ‘queer’ at the time but it’s an interesting phrase. What it’s saying is – and they didn’t mean queer in a sexual sense, they meant odd – all the world is odd except you and me – and you’re a little odd. In other words, I think what the phrase is saying is none of us are ‘normal’…
“Normality is something you can either live, or be pushed to the outside if you don’t. The fact is that nobody is normal.
“There’s a wonderful phrase: ‘We are not hypocrites when we dream.’ When we dream, we can’t be hypocrites, we can’t lie to ourselves about who we really are… I think it’s a great phrase and it’s something that I really believe, I mean I have really sexy dreams and I’m not feeling hypocritical about that!
“What I’ve always done as a writer, and as a painter, and a filmmaker, is to say the things I feel in dreams, which are things that are not normal, because normality is dull.”
—Clive Barker & Tiffany Naiman – Outfest – Platinum Alchemy Maverick Award, Los Angeles, 17 July 2022
About Spector Street Theatre Company:
Spector Street is the dream child of its co-founder Ian Swanson, a writer and guest producer at Clive Barker Podcast, student at Grand Rapids Community College’s Theater Department, with a passion for all things celebrating the great ‘Imaginer’, Clive Barker, and a concentration on his work as a playwright, author, film director, and visual artist. Spector Street focuses on the local communities of West Michigan
Spector Street, penned after Clive Barker’s short story ‘The Forbidden’, featured in ‘Books of Blood’, ‘In The Flesh’, known to the world through Bernard Rose’s film ‘Candyman’, and it’s spotlight on Cabrini-Green Homes (Spector Street Estate, ‘The Forbidden’) and public housing.
Spector Street Theatre Company as an organization, celebrating the many works and worlds of the ‘Imaginer’ Clive Barker, is committed to accessibility, diversity, and equal opportunity.
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Clive Barker: Revelations: “Official Site exploring the worlds and works of Clive Barker. Includes all Clive’s latest news together with exclusive interviews, information and contact details. Extensive bibliographies, filmographies, art galleries and more. — www.clivebarker.info
The Clive Barker Archive: “Collates Clive’s works in all media, including his working notes, papers and sketches for hundreds of projects – both published and unpublished – dating from the mid-1960’s to the present day.” — www.clivebarkerarchive.com
“Once asked by an interviewer what he wanted (besides his name) on his tombstone, Clive Barker replied ‘Imaginer’. Imagination is the force that brings his work as a painter into being and the fuel that sustains the creative process.” — www.deviantart.com/clivebarker
*All quoted material sources comes courtesy directly from the official websites of Don Bertram, Nicholas Vince, Peter Atkins, Martin Mercer & Clive Barker, and their various presences online.
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35th Anniversary of ‘Clive Barker’s Hellraiser’ – Charity Film Screening
HELLRAISER, 1987, New World Pictures, 94 min, USA, Dir: Clive Barker
“In this first film in the HELLRAISER franchise, an antique puzzle box brought from Morocco to London unleashes a race of Cenobites, who love nothing more than inflicting pain on human beings. With his feature directorial debut, Clive Barker joined such filmmakers as Wes Craven and Sam Raimi among the ranks of horror’s most reliable auteurs, and lead Cenobite Pinhead – his face pierced by dozens of needles – joined the ranks of the genre’s most recognizable monsters. Starring Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins and Ashley Laurence.”
–American Cinematheque
All proceeds benefit Don Bertram’s Celebrate Imagination supporting the Arts in Medicine Program at Texas Children’s Cancer Center
Tickets available online at grcmc.org/theatre
