MEET THE ARTIST
Horror Advocate| Crime Trends Expert| Pop Culture Survivalist|Cryptanalyst| +Poet
As a media artist and community leader, Ava (Avie) Fields positions her work as immersion therapy, an untapped resource for prioritizing underrepresented communities/voices.
In February 2023, the Mass Cultural Council recognized THA. This pop-culture research project meets inequities at their root rather than their symptomatic effect as a critical influence on MA culture. THA uses innovative community response models to reframe and repurpose traumatic content, demonstrating the transformative impact of blending horror film, equity, and compassion. The objective is to transform antiquated social structures that thrive on harm and starve survival.
For those who want to put their fears to use, her developing project, REC Zombie, is a collection of horror film/television titles, descriptions, and streaming locations that create a tapestry of America's temperature of conscience from 1896 to date. A hybrid archival + advocacy resource, REC Zombie honors the history and transformative impact of the Horror genre.
These resources will shift industry standards around antiquated award structures and help reclaim horror's rightful place in cinema history.
With a passion for prison reform, harm reduction, and investigating wrongful convictions, she combines horror advocacy with restorative justice. She hopes people experience as much catharsis engaging with her work as she does by creating it.
WHAT IS A HORROR ADVOCATE?
A Horror Advocate acts as a cultural liaison, offering equitable approaches to reduce human suffering through reframing and repurposing traumatic content for survival.
project background/history
RADIO HORROR HISTORY
'Orson Welles, The War of the Worlds radio drama, aired on this day in 1938. It was performed as the Halloween episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air. From Wikipedia: The first two-thirds of the 62-minute broadcast were presented as a series of simulated news bulletins, which suggested to some listeners that an actual alien invasion by Martians was currently in progress. Compounding the issue was the fact that the Mercury Theatre on the Air was a sustaining show (it ran without commercial breaks), adding to the program's realism and that others were primarily listening to Edgar Bergen and only tuned in to the show during a musical interlude, thereby missing the introduction that proved the show was a drama. In the days following the adaptation, there was widespread outrage in the media. The program's news-bulletin format was described as cruelly deceptive by some newspapers (which had lost advertising revenue to radio) and public figures, leading to an outcry against the perpetrators of the broadcast and calls for regulation by the Federal Communications Commission. Despite these complaints —the episode secured Welles's fame as a dramatist.'
The Horror Advocate ep1: A History, A Landscape
HORROR HISTORY
The FIRST HORROR FILM IN RECORDED HISTORY was released in 1896.
This is the premier episode for my Live Series “The Horror Advocate,” featuring a brief history of horror and an introduction to my work and train of thought.
NOTE: The Haunted Castle (1896) is the first horror film. The Terror (1928) is the first with sound. I conflated the two.
Want to learn more about the first horror films on record? This top 10 list is a great read.
Project Introduction
As early as 1896, Horror films have been an intricate part of our recorded history. It's a testament to the genre's artistry that it was created in the silent film era. Having to create images and storylines devoid of audio, Horror has saved us all from ourselves in one form or another. Whether you're a fan of horror TV shows, classic films, new age nightmares, or love to escape into a world where consequences match the gravity of real-world actions. Horror films always take our fears-- and gift wrapping them for us. Horror holds ground where we cannot.
REC Zombie is my love letter to horror. To its courage, to its individuality, to its ingenuity, To its boundary-shifting innovation. It's time we glorify horror's power, intrigue, and impact.
REC Zombie PROJECT DESCRIPTION
For those who want to put their fears to use, REC Zombie is a collection of horror film/television titles, descriptions, and streaming locations that weave a tapestry of America's cultural temperature from 1896 to date.
REC Zombie is a hybrid archival and advocacy resource project born from commitments to restorative justice, visibility, and radical accountability. This project houses FOUR signature programs: REC RETRO Horror Awards and the REC Zombie Archive. REC ZOMBIE ON DEMAND FILM RECOMMENDATION SERVICE, and the REC Zombie Horror Appreciation List. The REC Zombie archive will be digital and physical, each reflecting its study area.
REC Zombie PROJECT DETAILS
The Problem:
+Horror Films have been subjugated for as long as they have been in existence
Who has this problem:
+The film industry, horror fans, and the public at large
NAME THE ISSUES:
+Dismantle and or expand on Prestige
+Avoiding Death as a coping mechanism for the inevitable
+ the genre's source materialThe privilege of avoiding manufactured violence in a world of wall-to-wall massacres
Jordan Peel curated the black American nightmare with Get Out + US.
Peele has been nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay for Get Out (2017), winning the latter [12] and another Best Picture nomination for BlacKkKlansman (2018). He has also been nominated for two British Academy Film Awards and two Golden Globes, winning one Primetime Emmy Award.
THE Anomalies
A Groundbreaking film plot where you align with those we’re typically told to diminish or dismiss.
Humanize the project (real-world example):
Hollywood rejected Freaks (1932) because the film showcased people with varying abilities, physical appearances, and specified circumstances.
This controversial film redefined the notions of beauty, love, and abnormality but was so disturbingly ahead of its time that audiences stayed away in huge numbers. Many found it exploitative, abhorrent, and "loathsome" with "unwholesome shockery." However, it also sympathetically portrayed the 'abnormal and the unwanted' as resilient and adaptable human beings with complete compassion and understanding. Only in the mixed-message ending did the freaks take savage and sadistic revenge. It made most audiences uncomfortable and engendered fright, uneasiness, and animosity.
REC ZOMBIE PROJECT MISSION + PRINCIPLES
+(re)Write the Past
+Re-writing academy award/oscar history
+Rewrite film Industry standards
+Embalming the Past In Accolades
+Honesty, Transparency, Sincerity, + Equity
Indie film industry to date
+Avoid (no) Evil
+The cultural mindset of death and endings
+(re)Branding death/NOT a substitute for grief
+Neutral acceptance of death
+End-of-life doula
+Creative Destruction
+the process of transformation that accompanies radical innovation
REC Zombie exists not only to acknowledge the films we love, but the community that has kept the genre alive.
+Fringe Connection
+To create resources and programs that honor the history and transformative impact of the Horror genre
+Model Behavior:
+Social [Anthropology] models and ethnographic data: abstractions derived from empirical observations of living societies
+Understanding past human societies–achieved through Horror Film titles, categories of social constructs, and current events,
+ Moving away from general theories and tradition, embrace ever-evolving approaches that address cultural blind spots [EX: civil rights, indigenous movements, feminist theory, etc
REC Zombie PROJECT DETAILS
Proof of the problem/ What is the nature of the problem/ evidence you have?:
+The Academy Award has been broadcasting live since 1930. Originally on the radio, it moved to TV. From 1953- to date, less than 2% of horror films have been awarded, acknowledged, or celebrated this time.
[TO DATE] There have only been six horror films ever nominated for Best Picture
at the Oscars. BELOW IS A list of iconic horror films that have made the cut so far:
+The Exorcist (1973)
+Jaws (1975)
+The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
+The Sixth Sense (1999)
+Black Swan (2010),
+Get Out (2017)
Why is the problem worth solving?
+Equity and Visibility
+Change: People respond to change always the same: first, we resist it, then try to assimilate the changes into our existing operations.
+Wunderkammer: a collection of natural artifacts, art, anthropological objects, etc.
Humanize the project with real-world examples:
+The Lost Years of Horror Movies: 1936-1938 and 1947-1952 :
This is particularly interesting because the Oscars took off in the early 1930s via radio and, by 1952, MOVED to TV.
USE THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW THE TIMELINE UP CLOSE
THE REC ZOMBIE TIMELINE gives a detailed view of where I am in the process, which parts are currently in motion, and where I'm headed. The goal is to launch the digital archive, the physical archive, the REC RETRO Horror Awards, and the REC Zombie Horror Appreciation List.
REC ZOMBIE PROGRAM Time Frame[s]
+ 1896-date Physical archive [the archeology cannon]
+ 1896-date Digital archive [ the anthropology cannon]
+ 1896-date DEI Film Archive
+1930-1951 Academy Awards(Radio only)
+1952-date Academy Awards (Tv broadcasts begin)
HORROR AND THE ACADEMY: 1932-DATE
+Historically, dramas are the most likely to earn nominations and win Best Picture. In total, only seven horror films in 94 award ceremonies have been nominated for the coveted Best Picture award, and only one, The Silence of the Lambs (1991) + Get out (209), .actually went on to win the prize.
+scif-i, horror, fantasy, and superhero genres are typically only acknowledged in visual effects
GATEKEEPING 101
+ exclusion- Contrary to popular belief, the awards system is designed to exclude and upholds structures of hierarchy and ineffective power silos. There's room for everyone ..build thE table, don't curate the invite list
+the "prestige": Maomtaotnong exclusivity of the Oscars. The idea of keeping the Academy Awards prestigious via arbitrary exclusion is so essential that expanding the number of Best Picture nominees from five to 10 in 2009 drew criticism from members of the Academy who felt the increase would diminish it.
This project is about Visibility, Equity, and Non-subjugation. Horror is widely considered the least purposeful of all genres; the genre is deliberately left out of the biggest film award event in the industry. This is about learning the truth and applying it to our day-to-day/standards.
HORROR AND THE ACADEMY: VOTING + CATEGORIZATION, WHERE DEMOGRAPHICS MATTER
A TYPICAL YEAR
+nominations and wins for Best Picture= dramas
+Acknowledged in visual effects =scif-i, horror, fantasy, and superhero genres
DEMOGRAPHICS N PREVIOUS YEARS:
+33% of the Academy's overall members identified as women
+ 19% OF the Academy's general members identified as BIPOC (via the LA Times)
BY 2021:
+The Academy invited 395 new members
+46% IDENTIFIED AS WOMEN
+39% IDENTIFIED AS BIPOC
VOTING + THE ACADEMY
THE ELITEST GATEKEEPING OF THE ACADEMY IS REFLECTED IN THE DEMOGRAPHICS AND DIVERSITY OF THE GOVERNING BODY. Who votes for the Oscars, and who are the Academy's members?
IN 2016 the Academy BEGAN THE FORMIDABLE TASK OF INTENTIONALLY DIVERSIFYING THEIR MEMBERSHIP BY promising to double THE number of women and ethnically diverse members by 2020.
ON AVERAGE, the Academy HAS more than 10,000 members,
+almost 9,500 of those are eligible to vote on the Oscars
+THE COMMITMENT TO DIVERSIFY HAS NOTICIBLY SLOWED SINCE THE ACADEMY Academy hit its 2020 target
+ A COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY IS A MARATHON, NOT A SPRINT. THE MISSION SHOULD ALWAYS SERVE TO TRANSFORM STANDARD PRACTICES (EX: CREATING A HORROR CATEGORY FOR THE ACADEMY AWARDS.)
1896-date PHYSICAL Archive [the archeology cannon]
The physical collection, also known as the archeology cannon, will study human history [and prehistory] by analyzing artifacts and other physical remains. Both archives will use typical categorizations such as year, director, lead actor/actress, and online streaming locations. Most importantly, the titles will be categorized by social/political quagmires we’re still working through as a society.
EX: a category on Pregnancy and or Reproductive HORROR would include:
+it's alive (1973)
+ Rosemary's baby(1968)
+ Grace (2009]
(this could also be included as part of a Food security category as the film also deals with veganism and barriers to food access)
1896-date Digital Archive [the anthropology cannon]
+The digital collection, also known as the anthropology cannon, will focus on what makes us human and how horror accurately portrays our darkest human instincts.
+The concepts, methods, and practices: linguistic anthropology and social-cultural anthropology
+Social-cultural anthropology uses a holistic strategy—linking local and global, past and present—to offer various approaches to understanding contemporary challenges.
DEI FILM ARCHIVE
HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, OR CURIOSITIES?
USE THE CONTACT INFO BELOW TO GET IN TOUCH.
Love, Avie
Boston, MA
thehorroradvocate@gmail.com
@ahorroradvocate
NAME RULES
How do you Pronounce Ava? (see the Australian pronunciation)
Professional Credits: Ava M. Fields
Introducing me: Ava
Casual communications + Zoom meetings: Ava or Avie