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Maitland McDonagh

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Maitland McDonagh (/ˈmeɪtlənd mɪkˈdɒnə/) is an American film critic, writer-editor and podcaster. She is the author of Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento (1991) and other books and articles on horror and exploitation films, as well as about erotic fiction and erotic cinema. In 2022, McDonagh was inducted into the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards' Monster Kid Hall of Fame.[1] She is the founder of the small press 120 Days Books, which became an imprint of Riverdale Avenue Books.

Early life

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McDonagh was born in New York City, the daughter of Don McDonagh, a dance critic and author, and Jennifer Jane Tobutt,[2] She is of Irish descent.[3] Her grandparents, both Irish emigrants, operated the Moylan Tavern in Morningside Heights.[3]

She received her Bachelor of Arts from Hunter College and her Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University,[4] where she co-founded and edited the magazine Columbia Film Review.[5] She was simultaneously working in the publicity department of the New York City Ballet,[4] eventually becoming head of publicity.[6]

Career

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In 1991, McDonagh released her book Broken Mirrors, Broken Minds, a scholarly analysis, expanded from her master's thesis,[7] of the films of Italian giallo writer-producer-director Dario Argento.[8] An expanded 2010 reissue was named one of PopMatters' "Best Non-Fiction of 2010".[9]

After leaving New York City Ballet, McDonagh taught film as an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College,[10] during which time she completed Filmmaking on the Fringe: The Good, The Bad, and the Deviant Directors[11][12] and The 50 Most Erotic Films of All Time.[13][14] Her freelance work during this period included film pieces for The New York Times,[15] Entertainment Weekly,[16] Film Comment,[17] Time Out New York,[18] Premiere[19] Fangoria,[20] and other magazines and newspapers. From 1995 to 2008, she was senior movies editor for the website of the magazine TV Guide.[21][22]

Her book Movie Lust (2006) was third in the Sasquatch Books series begun with Book Lust by Nancy Pearl and Music Lust by Nic Harcourt.[23][24] In 2006, she was a co-founder of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists.[25] She is also a member of the New York Film Critics Online.[26]

In 2014, McDonagh created the company 120 Days Books to republish rare 1970s and 1980s gay-erotica genre novels, beginning with a pair of two-in-one volumes: the crime thrillers Man Eater and Night of the Sadist and the supernatural fantasies Vampire's Kiss and Gay Vampire.[27] Later in the decade, this became an imprint of Riverdale Avenue Books.[28]

McDonagh provides interviews and second-channel commentary on DVD / Blu-ray releases, including for director Paul Schrader's Blue Collar,[29] Dario Argento's Tenebrae,[30] and Douglas Buck's Family Portraits: A Trilogy of America,[31] and liner notes, including for the Criterion Collection releases The Tunnel, The Innocents,[32] Kuroneko,[33] and the paired Corridors of Blood/The Haunted Strangler,[34] Arrow Video's Dressed to Kill,[35] and Second Sight Films' The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 4K UHD.[36] She stars in a documentary short, speaking on serial-killer cinema, on the Criterion Collection release of The Silence of the Lambs.[37] Since 2016, she has been a recurring guest host of the podcast The Projection Booth.[38] In 2024, she began reviewing horror and other genre films weekly at her online website, Maitland on Movies.[39][40]

She has appeared in documentaries, including Night Bites: Women and Their Vampires (2003) for WE: Women's Entertainment[41] and Pretty Bloody: The Women of Horror (2009), for Canada's Space network,[42] and as a panelist at film events by the Museum of the Moving Image and others.[43][44] She has served on the juries of film festivals including the 2022 Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, Canada.[45]

Bibliography

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  • Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento, (London, England, Sun Tavern Fields, 1991; reissued New York, Citadel Press, 1994) ISBN 0-9517012-4-X; expanded and reissued, Minneapolis, Minnesota, University of Minnesota Press, 2010 ISBN 978-0816656073[46][47][48]
  • Filmmaking on the Fringe: The Good, the Bad, and the Deviant Directors (New York, Carol Publishing, 1995) ISBN 0-8065-1557-0
  • The 50 Most Erotic Films of All Time: From Pandora's Box to Basic Instinct (New York, Carol Publishing Corporation, 1996) ISBN 0-8065-1697-6
  • Movie Lust: Recommended Viewing for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason (Seattle, Wash., Sasquatch Books, 2006) ISBN 1-57061-478-4

As co-author

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As editor

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Anthologies

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Maitland McDonagh essays appear in:

  • Bryce, Allan, ed. (2000). "The Living Dead at Miskatonic Morgue [and] Sometimes They Come Back...Again". Zombie. Liskead, Cornwall, England: Stray Cat Publishing. ISBN 978-0953326129.
  • Bryce, Allan, ed. (2000). "Martine Beswicke: Sister Hyde [and] Barbara Steele: Witches and Bitches". Fantasy Females. Liskead, Cornwall, England: Stray Cat Publishing. ISBN 0953326144.
  • White, Andrew, ed. (2000). "You Gotta Have Park: Come Down by the Riverside". Time Out Book of New York Walks. London: Time Out / Penguin. ISBN 978-0140296228.
  • Sidaris, Andy (2003). "On Andy's Gang". Bullets Bombs and Babes. Heavy Metal Books. ISBN 978-1932413007.
  • Horwath, Alexander, ed. (2004). "The Exploitation Generation. or: How Marginal Movies Came in from the Cold". The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s. Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 978-9053564936.
  • Edwards, Matthew, ed. (2007). "Writing Argento". Film Out of Bounds: Essays and Interviews on Non-Mainstream Cinema Worldwide. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0786429707.
  • Nette, Andrew, ed. (2019). "Fifty Shades of Gay: An Introduction to the Gay Adult Pulp of the 1970s". Sticking It to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950 to 1980. PM Press. ISBN 9781629636665.
  • Nette, Andrew; Iain McIntyre, eds. (2021). "The Stars My Destination: The Future According to Gay Adult Science Fiction Novels of the 1970s". Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985. PM Press. pp. 111–119. ISBN 978-1629639321. Book a finalist nominee for a Hugo Award.[50]
  • Doyle, Michael, ed. (2022). "Re-Animator: Stuart Gordon". Stuart Gordon: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers Series). University Press of Mississippi. pp. 73–85. ISBN 978-1496837745.

References

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  1. ^ "Here are the Winners of the (Gasp!) 20th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror awards". RondoAward.com. February 22, 2022. Archive link
  2. ^ Kisselgoff, Anna (December 13, 2019). "Don McDonagh, Dance Critic and Author, Dies at 87". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 26, 2021.
  3. ^ a b Molloy, Maeve (March 2012). "Roots: The Marvelous McDonaghs". Irish America. Archived from the original on December 16, 2023.
  4. ^ a b Roberts, Michael (October 1988). "Queen of Darkness". Detroit Monthly. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  5. ^ "Columbia Film Review #1 (Nov. 1982)". Columbia University. November 1982. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  6. ^ Tyre, Peg (September 29, 1986). "Future Shock at the City Ballet?". New York.
  7. ^ Poole, W. Scott (April 27, 2010). "Broken Mirrors, Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento by Maitland McDonagh". PopMatters. Based originally on McDonagh's MFA thesis...
  8. ^ Kenny, Glenn (April 25, 2016). "Dario Argento's "Deep Red" and "Tenebrae" Get Massive Blu-Ray Re-Releases". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on March 13, 2017. Retrieved February 8, 2019. Argento's films have inspired piles of erudite and equally obsessive commentary, beginning with Maitland McDonagh's 1991 book 'Broken Mirrors, Broken Minds.'
  9. ^ PopMatters Staff (January 23, 2011). "The Best Non-Fiction of 2010". PopMatters. Archived from the original on November 14, 2016. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  10. ^ "Maitland McDonagh Brooklyn College Film Class Syllabus". Summer 1995.,
  11. ^ New York, Carol Publishing, 1995) ISBN 0-8065-1557-0
  12. ^ "Considering Horror Panel Discussion". Museum of the Moving Image. New York City. June 17, 2007.
  13. ^ New York, Carol Publishing, 1996) ISBN 0-8065-1697-6
  14. ^ "An edition of The Fifty Most Erotic Films of All Time: From Pandora's Box to Basic Instinct (1996)". Open Library. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  15. ^ "FILM; Jane Campion's 'Angel' Is Another Quirky Soul". The New York Times. May 19, 1991. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  16. ^ Maitland McDonagh articles at Entertainment Weekly official page
  17. ^ "Straight to Hell". Film Comment. November–December 1990. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  18. ^ "La Scorta (movie review)". Time Out New York. February 2–8, 2006. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  19. ^ "In-Flight Films". Premiere. October 1991. Retrieved May 29, 2023.,
  20. ^ "Still Giving Us Nightmares". Fangoria. No. 284. June 2009. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  21. ^ Hall, Phil (March 29, 2010). "Maitland McDonagh: In Search of Dario Argento". Film Threat. Archived from the original on January 23, 2020. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  22. ^ Staff (April 7, 2010). "Maitland McDonagh on horror films and the dark dreams of Dario Argento". University of Minnesota Press. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  23. ^ Staff (August 14, 2006). "Fall Trade Paperbacks: Performing Art & Film". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  24. ^ "Movie Lust: Recommended Viewing for Every Mood Moment & Reason". Powell's Books. Retrieved May 29, 2023. Just as Book Lust and Music Lust supplied thousands of new reading and listening recommendations, Movie Lust continues the Lust series tradition.
  25. ^ Merrin, Jennifer (April 1, 2016). "The Alliance of Women Film Journalists: The First Ten Years". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on February 25, 2021. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  26. ^ "Our Members". New York Film Critics Online. Archived from the original on June 8, 2015. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
  27. ^ Noh, David (January 8, 2015). "Pulped!". Gay City News. Archived from the original on April 5, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  28. ^ 120 Days Books at Riverdale Avenue Books. Retrieved on January 7, 2020.
  29. ^ Pizzello, Chris (May 2000). "DVD Playback: Blue Collar". American Cinematographer. Archived from the original on December 23, 2017.
  30. ^ Foster, Tyler (October 5, 2016). "Tenebrae (Blu-ray)". DVD Talk. Archived from the original on December 29, 2017. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
  31. ^ Gaita, Paul (May 20, 2021). "Movies Till Dawn: Everyday People". The Los Angeles Beat. Archived from the original on June 17, 2021. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  32. ^ Smith, Jordan M. (September 23, 2014). "Criterion Collection: The Innocents Blu-ray Review". Ion Cinema. Archived from the original on June 13, 2015. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
  33. ^ Brevet, Brad (October 18, 2011). "Blu-ray Review: 'Kuroneko' (Criterion Collection)". RopeOfSilicon.com. Archived from the original on March 29, 2012. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
  34. ^ Hudson, David (October 25, 2011). "Scary Monsters 2011, Round 3". The Notebook (MUBI). Archived from the original on December 9, 2013. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
  35. ^ Holmes, Matt (July 29, 2013). "Win: Dressed To Kill Blu-ray". WhatCulture.com. Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
  36. ^ Hamman, Cody (February 14, 2023). "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 4K UHD release coming from Second Sight Films in April". JoBlo.com. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  37. ^ Evangelista, Chris (February 13, 2018). "New Blu-ray Releases: 'The Silence of the Lambs' and 'Night of the Living Dead' From the Criterion Collection". /Film. Archived from the original on February 13, 2018. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
  38. ^ Including "Episode 291: Night of the Creeps (1986)". The Projection Booth. October 4, 2016. Retrieved May 29, 2023. and "Episode 567: Ball of Fire (1941)". The Projection Booth. April 6, 2022. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  39. ^ "Dario Argento: Panico / Simone Scafidi". Retrieved June 1, 2024. Night Visions International Film Festival.
  40. ^ Mitchell, Wendy (April 12, 2024). "AWFJ Member News". Retrieved June 1, 2024. Alliance of Women Film Journalists.
  41. ^ "Night Bites: Women and Their Vampires". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on May 29, 2023. Retrieved May 29, 2023. ...and horror-film / erotic-film author-lecturer Maitland McDonagh.
  42. ^ Zimmerman, Samuel (February 20, 2009). "Pretty Bloody explores women in horror". Fangoria. Archived from the original on March 2, 2009. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  43. ^ Kehr, David (June 15, 2007). "Movie Guide and Film Series: It's Only a Movie: Horror Films From the 1970s and Today". The New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2017. ... panel discussion with the critics Nathan Lee, Adam Lowenstein, Maitland McDonagh and Joshua Rothkopf.
  44. ^ "Museums, Societies, etc". New York. February 6, 1995. p. 75. 'Beautiful Nightmares: The Films of Dario Argento' ... with Argento present for a talk with Maitland McDonagh...
  45. ^ Patterson, Adam (July 25, 2022). "Fantasia 2022: Award Winners Announced". Film Pulse. Archived from the original on July 25, 2022. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  46. ^ "Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria". Vulture.com. October 23, 2018. Archived from the original on October 23, 2018. Retrieved March 24, 2021.
  47. ^ Fear, David (October 30, 2018). "Which Witch is Which: In Praise of the Original Suspira". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on December 25, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2021.
  48. ^ Kuersten, Erich (November 24, 2012). "Book review: Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds, by Maitland McDonagh". Bright Lights Film Journal. Archived from the original on March 28, 2021.
  49. ^ New York City Ballet : [souvenir program] fortieth anniversary : 1988. WorldCat. OCLC 430390176.
  50. ^ "2022 Hugo Awards". Hugo Awards. 7 April 2022. Retrieved May 29, 2023. Under "Best Related Work"
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