When Blind Samurai Films and publishing was established in Malvern in 2005 by movie script writer Roger Cottrell and IT specialist Paul Mitton it was to avail of new technology in taking cultural production away from the corporations and democratizing said production as part of a Gramscian war of position.

Using generic forms, (particularly that of the crime novel,) Roger Cottrell embarked on his second city quintet of crime novels that deal with racism, police corruption, fascism, state repression and other issues through the travails of dodgy black Birmingham cop Alan Kemp.

By far the best of these is STRAIGHT TO HELL, about the Nazi underground in the West Midlands and ALL books can be perused (and even bought) on the following link:-

 http://www.blindsamurai.com/presenting/nov_story/novstory.html

Reviews from INDYMEDIA are not only welcome but sorely needed!!!!

More recently, Roger's science fiction short story, WAR CHILD, set in a Corporate controlled Baghdad in 2048 was shortlisted for the UPC Science Fiction award and has been developed by INDYMEDIA IRELAND veteran Eamonn Crudden as a film pilot.

This was shown at the DARKLIGHT festival in Dublin. The story is now being developed both as a graphic novel, (in conjunction with Spanner Graphics in West Cork Ireland,) and as a short film to be screened at Birmingham's TIC between 26th and 29th October.

Our plan is to develop this as a part animated feature with overlays similar in format to A SCANNER DARKLY, but dealing with such issues as fundamentalism and corporate control of foreign policy in the mid-21st Century.

Basically, what we want from Indymedai subscribers is ventilated and feedback. We'll be posting some of the graphic sequences very soon.

watch this space!!

And keep up the good work on Indymeda!!!

ROGER COTTRELL
HEAD OF SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT
BLIND SAMURAI FILMS