Discovering Colin Bishopp

One of the best things about my job, aside from the free coffee and occasional cocktail at a festival party, is discovering an up-and-coming filmmaker with talent to spare. And so it was with Colin Bishopp (pictured at left politely laughing at my comment, and below talking to the crowd before the show began, photo credits: S­kot Kuiper), who sent me an email inviting me to a special screening of his short, SNAGGLETOOTH in the place it was filmed, the exquisitely restored William Westerfeld House. In addition to the glass of wine and the dangerously toothsome chocolate cupcake on offer before the show, we were treated to a tour of the reclaimed Victorian by James J. Siegel, the man who has made it his life’s work to return San Francisco’s Victorian mansions to their former glory. After hearing tales of Janis Joplin‘s visit when it was a commune, and Church of Satan founder Anton Szandor LaVey casting spells in the tower room (the one with the spectacular 360-degree view), we settled down to the short itself.

Think of a cross between Hammer’s mid-century horror and David Lynch at his most puckish and you get a sense of how Bishopp told his brief but effective tale of a nocturnal dentist and his very special adolescent patient. Moody but with a refreshing spark of the absurd, it portends more to come from Bishopp to which we can all look forward. As a special treat, we saw the pitch video for the short’s GoFundMe drive, which featured a cameo by the filmmaker himself, proving that he’s just as talented on that side the camera.

PIqued your interest? SNAGGLETOOTH plays tomorrow, 7/7/18, as part of the Scary Cow Productions program at the fabulous Castro Theatre a venue equally spectacular as the William Westerfeld House.