Kier-La Janisse in 2009. Cindy Titus photo

Kier-La Janisse wins for Best Article

Kier-La Janisse has won a Rondo Hatton Award for Best Article. The piece, “The Golden Age of TV Terror”, appeared in issue #117 of Canadian horror mag Rue Morgue.

Janisse’s name will be familiar to most horror and cult movie fans in Vancouver – at least those who have been here long enough to remember Cinemuerte. Janisse put together the much-loved horror film festival for seven years. In 2003 she moved to Austin, where she worked as a programmer at that city’s Alamo Drafthouse Cinema for four years. In 2007 she returned to her hometown of Winnipeg and founded Big Smash! Productions.

Janisse currently lives in Montreal where she helps run Blue Sunshine, which according to its website is “a non-profit arts collective that promotes and exhibits Canadian and international film and video art through regular screenings, film classes and cultural collaborations to further enrich Canada’s film-going culture.”

The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards are named after an obscure B-movie actor from the ’40s and honor “the best in classic horror research, creativity and film preservation”, according to the Rondo Hatton Awards website. The Classic Horror Film Board, a 17-year-old online community, conducts the vote, which this year – the awards’ 10th – drew more than 3,100 ballots from fans and genre professionals from around the world. The awards were  announced April 2 (we’re late – sorry!).

You can see the rest of the awards here.