Now Enrolling!
WS104: Questionable Cinema
Summer at the Trash Stratum
With Phil Ford and JF Martel,
co-hosts of Weird Studies
Aug 4 - Aug 27, 2026
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Join JF Martel and Phil Ford for a four-week series devoted to the cinema of questionable taste. We’ll watch films that are weird, excessive, dumb, vulgar, or surreal, whether accidentally or on purpose, and we’ll be digging every frame. There is an art to watching trash-stratum movies—not in the ironic “so bad it’s good” way, but in the spirit of Jack Smith: “corniness is the other side of marvelousness.” “Questionable” can mean dubious, but it might also mean “something that invites questions,” and that’s what we’re after.
Each Friday, a film will be announced—it may be a horror b-movie, a cult oddity, or an obscure independent production—along with instructions on how to watch it, whether for the first time on Tuesday evenings with the group, or beforehand, for added context. Then, on the Tuesday following the announcement, we'll watch the selected film together, with JF and Phil running a live commentary, as one does when watching bizarro cinema with friends. Neither host will know ahead of time which films the other has chosen. But you can be sure that their selections will come together as they always do—synchronistically, unexpectedly, and astonishingly. Count on the conversation veering into philosophy and esotericism, with no shortage of out-of-nowhere tangents, all in the spirit of Weird Studies.
Finally, on the Thursday following each screening, a “campfire session” will let participants weigh in, bringing their own questions, ideas, and favourite examples of questionable film to the unfolding conversation.
We hope you'll join us in August for four weeks of exquisite bad taste, and a voyage into the heart of the weird cinematic.
Schedule
The course begins on Tuesday, August 4, and ends with a final group discussion on Thursday, August 27.
Lecture Hall sessions will take place on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern. These sessions will be recorded. Office Hours sessions will take place on Thursdays at 8 p.m. Eastern. Like the Lecture Halls, these sessions will be recorded.
All the recorded sessions will remain available to registered students after the course concludes, in video and audio format.
Format
The course consists of four weekly Lecture Halls (“screenings”), roughly 90-120 minutes long, depending on the length of the film chosen, and as many Office Hours (“campfire sessions”) for open discussion. All meetings take place over Zoom via the Weirdosphere learning platform. The course includes a dedicated feed where the instructors and students can post thoughts, share links, and engage in discussion between Zoom sessions.
Important Note: Participants are responsible for securing their own ability to watch/stream all films. Guidance will be provided to locate films that are harder to find.
How to Join the Tuesday Screenings
Get ready to start the movie on your DVD/Blu-ray or streaming platform. Availability of selected films will be announced ahead of time so that participants can secure their own license for viewing.
Join the Zoom Meetings on Tuesdays, August 4, 11, 18 and 25, at 8 p.m. EDT / 5 p.m. PDT.
When we’re ready, Phil or JF will count down: “3… 2… 1… Play.” On “play,” everyone presses play at the same time and the Questionable Cinema experience begins!
Homework
The course is structured around viewing and discussing “questionable” cinema. Viewing is entirely optional, but interested students can watch films they might otherwise not have even had on their radar, as the course progresses. We suggest watching each film before Lecture Hall sessions since JF and Phil will be talking over the film during these group screenings.
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On the very notion of a Weirdosphere
At a certain point, Phil Ford and J.F. Martel started to realize they weren't just two guys with a podcast (Weird Studies), but members of a community of thinkers, artists, and writers all drawn to the same chaotic, terrible, beautiful zone — the Weird. This community could be called the intellectual sphere of the weird, or, to coin a term, the intellectual Weirdosphere.
But how could such an imaginal entity manifest on the material plane, they asked? What institution could serve as a makeshift home to the Weird? Where would J.F., Phil, and their friends be able to establish the conversations they wanted to have?
This site to which fate has steered you—our community on Mighty Networks at Weirdosphere.mn.co—is home to all the conversations we ever wanted to have with our colleagues. And you are our colleague, even if we haven't yet met. Welcome to Weirdosphere.
