Paul Andrew Julian Lewis

From a young age, Paul developed a fascination with cinema, driven by the eclecticism of the early video age, in which disreputable European horror films would often sit side-by-side with highbrow 'art' films. Formative experiences in terms of his tasted in films were Alex Cox and Nick Freand Jones' screenings of 'cult' films as part of the BBC's Moviedrome series during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and ITV's roughly contemporaneous late-night series of European films entitled 'Le Continental', which specialised in broadcasting Spaghetti Westerns (like Pasquale Squiteri's Django Against Sartana, 1970) alongside obscure actioners (such as the 1980 West German picture Theo Against the Rest of the World) and comedies (for example, the 1964 French comedy The Policeman of St Tropez). Naturally, Paul decided to pursue his love of literature and cinema at university, progressing from his first degree (in English Literature and Social Science) onto an MA in Contemporary Literature and Film, where he revelled in studying punk cinema with Dr John Hoyles and was mentored in the writing of his thesis (focusing on Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs) by Neil Sinyard. Resisting pressure from his family to get a 'proper job', Paul took up teaching in 2001 and, since 2005, has dovetailed his labours in education with work as a published and exhibited documentary photographer, and he has also worked continuously as a freelance writer specialising in film history and criticism, producing articles about film directors such as Fernando di Leo (Milano calibre 9, 1972) and television/film writers like Trevor Preston (Out, 1978). From 2006, Paul has written regular DVD/Blu-ray reviews for Rewind, producing approximately 40 articles per year and specialising in British cinema, popular European cinema (for example, the thrilling all'italiana and European horror films), film noir and Japanese cinema. He is also a published documentary photographer. Paul has directed a number of short films and since 2016 has been in collaboration with independent filmmaking collective Grimnir Pictures, which is based in Lincolnshire in the United Kingdom. For Grimnir Pictures, Paul acts as director, sometimes co-writer, and unit stills photographer.