Rodney Ascher

Director

USA

Biography

Rodney Ascher is a filmmaker whose feature debut, the ‘subjective documentary' ROOM 237 (IFC) looked at Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining through the eyes of five very different people, each obsessed with solving its countless mysteries. The film premiered at Sundance in 2012 before screening at festivals around the world including Cannes, London, the Vienalle, Sitges, Toronto, and New York. His follow-up, the ‘horror-documentary’ THE NIGHTMARE (Gravitas Ventures) explored the phenomenon of ‘sleep …

Filmography

5.4

ABCs of Death 2

Taking all that was great from the first instalment, the movie aims to be a wilder, leaner, faster-paced and even more entertaining anthology this time around, with a new crop of award-winning, visionary filmmakers from around the globe.

6.1

Room 237

A subjective documentary that explores various theories about hidden meanings in Stanley Kubrick's classic film The Shining. Five very different points of view are illuminated through voice over, film clips, animation and dramatic reenactments.

5.5

The Nightmare

Eight people experience sleep paralysis, a condition which leaves them unable to move, speak or react.

5.3

A Glitch in the Matrix

Are we in fact living in a simulation? This is the question postulated, wrestled with, and ultimately argued for through archival footage, compelling interviews with real people shrouded in digital avatars, and a collection of cases from some of our most iconoclastic figures in contemporary culture.

7.0

Visions of Terror

A young woman meets the ultimate terror, a supernatural reality-bending maniac with a very large collection of out of print VHS tapes.

7.0

The El Duce Tapes

A wilfully offensive band, The Mentors gained infamy for performing in black executioner hoods and spewing cartoonishly racist, homophobic and misogynistic lyrics in the 1980s and ‘90s—but was their use of shock meant to propagate hate or confront it?

N/A

Ghost Boy

Martin Pistorius slipped into a coma at the age of 12. Three years later he woke up but was unable to communicate and no-one realized he was fully aware. This is the true story of his remarkable journey back to life.

6.0

Sonic Cinema: Sparklehorse

All of the album's songs were made into music videos by various filmmakers, such as the Quay Brothers, Garine Torossian, Grant Gee, and Guy Maddin.

5.3

Haunted, Horrifying Sounds from Beyond the Grave

A musician’s money grab Halloween composition unleashes the haunting sound of his own mother’s death.

N/A

Hot Chicks

Hot Chicks is a unique omnibus collaboration that adapts several of the widely-read palm-sized religious comic book tracts that have been published by Jack T Chick since 1958. Over 400 million copies of Chick's easy-to-read work have been distributed in over 70 languages around the world, to spread his message of born again salvation.

N/A

An Evening with Rodney Ascher

A twisted cinematic supercut of short films, visual essays, found footage, remixes and music videos.

N/A

Somebody Goofed

Appropriated from one of fundamentalist comic book artist Jack Chick’s short “Chick tracts” designed to illustrate Christian doctrine, a young boy in the city is led astray by an older friend who disparages a sidewalk sermonizer.

N/A

Doris Wishman Directs A Music Video

When buying a marital aid at an adult emporium, Tom Smith unexpectedly discovers legendary exploitation filmmaker Doris Wishman working behind the counter and their unexpected adventure begins. This short film and amazing tale Rodney Ascher (ROOM 237) about a late-career creative effort by Doris Wishman has never been published until now. Included as bonus material is the final music video referenced in the title, finally edited some 20 years after it was shot.

N/A

The Wheel of Torment

A perfect little nightmare, WHEEL OF TORMENT takes several dizzying turns around Hieronymus Bosch’s epic pageants of violence set to Buckethead's spastic music.

5.6

The S from Hell

THE S FROM HELL is a short documentary-cum-horror film about the scariest corporate symbol in history - The 1964 Screen Gems logo, aka ‘The S From Hell.’ Built around interviews with survivors still traumatized from their childhood exposure to the logo after shows like Bewitched or The Monkees, the film brings their stories to life with animation, found footage, and dramatic reenactments.

5.7

Primal Screen

Primal Screen is a documentary about a person's childhood fear of ventriloquist dummies and dolls due to the uncanny valley.

N/A

Enter the Optigan

A segment from the abandoned documentary film "The Collectors." Shot in 1999 and edited in 2013–2014. The short documentary centers on Pea Hicks, a collector of an obscure electronic instrument called the Optigan.

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