Hal C.F. Astell
- Actor
- Producer
Hal C. F. Astell, who was born in England in 1971, is a film critic, author and film festival director based in Phoenix, AZ.
In 2006, he founded Apocalypse Later as a movie review site. This was later renamed to Apocalypse Later Reviews, as other facets to the Apocalypse Later Empire were added.
Apocalypse Later Press was founded in 2013 so that he could publish books on film, starting with 'Huh: An A-Z of Why Classic American Bad Movies Were Made', which looked at the various reasons why some of the "worst movies of all time" were made; and 'Velvet Glove Cast in Iron: The Films of Tura Satana'. 'Charlie Chaplin Centennial: Keystone' followed in 2016, a print version of an online project to document Chaplin's first year in film by reviewing all 36 of his 1914 films on the 100th anniversary of their original release, so seeing him and American comedy grow as did the audiences of the time. 'The International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival: The Transition Years' covered every film, feature and short, which screened at that festival in 2011, 2012 and 2013, the first three years after being absorbed into the Phoenix Film Festival. His fifth book, 'A Hundred in 2016', won the Alan Black Cirque du Livre Book of the Festival in 2017; it grew out of another online project to remember 35 important people in film in 2016 by reviewing an interesting but unusual film from each of their careers on what would have been (and, in two instances, was) their 100th birthdays.
Also in 2013, he curated and presented a 90m set of short films and a feature for the science fiction/fantasy convention, LepreCon 39, as a sort of mini-film festival. This proved highly popular and he was asked to do likewise for CopperCon Revolution later in the year, so he started up the Apocalypse Later Roadshow, with the goal of continuing to bring quality international short films to new eyeballs as a free service to local conventions in the Phoenix area. This quickly expanded to Tucson and Jerome, then San Diego, CA, and, through the western regional convention, Westercon, eventually Denver, CO and, in 2019, Layton, UT. As of event 33, he's screened 236 short films and 5 features from 32 different countries in 8 cities and 3 states.
This inevitably led to his own film festival, ALIFFF (Apocalypse Later International Fantastic Film Festival), which he founded in 2016 in Phoenix, AZ. This is the only dedicated annual genre film festival in the fifth largest city in the United States, and it runs for two full days in mid-October in a very social atmosphere with free popcorn and some form of lunch provided.
He's also active in fandom, documenting the past, present and future of Arizona fandom at azfandom. He co-founded the Arizona Penny Dreadfuls and serves on the board of LepreCon, Inc.. He vice chaired Westercon 70 and founded and co-chaired the first CoKoCon in 2018.
In 2006, he founded Apocalypse Later as a movie review site. This was later renamed to Apocalypse Later Reviews, as other facets to the Apocalypse Later Empire were added.
Apocalypse Later Press was founded in 2013 so that he could publish books on film, starting with 'Huh: An A-Z of Why Classic American Bad Movies Were Made', which looked at the various reasons why some of the "worst movies of all time" were made; and 'Velvet Glove Cast in Iron: The Films of Tura Satana'. 'Charlie Chaplin Centennial: Keystone' followed in 2016, a print version of an online project to document Chaplin's first year in film by reviewing all 36 of his 1914 films on the 100th anniversary of their original release, so seeing him and American comedy grow as did the audiences of the time. 'The International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival: The Transition Years' covered every film, feature and short, which screened at that festival in 2011, 2012 and 2013, the first three years after being absorbed into the Phoenix Film Festival. His fifth book, 'A Hundred in 2016', won the Alan Black Cirque du Livre Book of the Festival in 2017; it grew out of another online project to remember 35 important people in film in 2016 by reviewing an interesting but unusual film from each of their careers on what would have been (and, in two instances, was) their 100th birthdays.
Also in 2013, he curated and presented a 90m set of short films and a feature for the science fiction/fantasy convention, LepreCon 39, as a sort of mini-film festival. This proved highly popular and he was asked to do likewise for CopperCon Revolution later in the year, so he started up the Apocalypse Later Roadshow, with the goal of continuing to bring quality international short films to new eyeballs as a free service to local conventions in the Phoenix area. This quickly expanded to Tucson and Jerome, then San Diego, CA, and, through the western regional convention, Westercon, eventually Denver, CO and, in 2019, Layton, UT. As of event 33, he's screened 236 short films and 5 features from 32 different countries in 8 cities and 3 states.
This inevitably led to his own film festival, ALIFFF (Apocalypse Later International Fantastic Film Festival), which he founded in 2016 in Phoenix, AZ. This is the only dedicated annual genre film festival in the fifth largest city in the United States, and it runs for two full days in mid-October in a very social atmosphere with free popcorn and some form of lunch provided.
He's also active in fandom, documenting the past, present and future of Arizona fandom at azfandom. He co-founded the Arizona Penny Dreadfuls and serves on the board of LepreCon, Inc.. He vice chaired Westercon 70 and founded and co-chaired the first CoKoCon in 2018.
