Wish you were here

Bill Barounis (with cool sunglasses on the left) passed away today three years ago.

Bill ran the coolest dvd label ever, ONAR FILMS. I never met Bill but like a few of us I knew him through correspondence; through Cinehound worldweird film forum, and through trading films with him. He lived in Greece and saw it as his life project to track down lost Turkish cult films and release them. In 2009 he got brain cancer and passed away in 2010.

The guy on the right, grinning like an undertaker, is Tom from Switzerland who met him in 2010 during a period when we all thought Bill had beat the illness. With Jared Auner (of Mondo Macabro and "Worldweird" blog) I maintain the semi-official ONAR FILMS fb page.

Bill could be tough but he knew who his friends were. He is sorely missed.

Update on the ONAR dvd sale - by Ali Murat Guven

By ALI MURAT GUVEN

Dear Turkish cult movie fans and friends of Onar Films,

We had a friend who was searching for the old fantastic Turkish movies, who dedicated his life to dig these lost jewels… We lost our dear fellow Vassilis Barounis or as we all know “Bill” in age of 48 in October 2011.

I met Vassilis Barounis in 2006 thanks to cinema historian Metin Demirhan who is another hero we lost couple of years ago. He was collaborating with Metin and asked me some technical help. So started our friendship...

First, I prepared interviews for “Tarzan İstanbul’da”, “Süpermen Dönüyor” and “Ölüler Konuşmaz ki…” Metin and we send them to Athens so we had a very nice way of working together.

Two weeks ago, Mr. Kunt Tulgar -famous Turkish producer, director and actor- went to Athens, Greece as a friendly representative to Bill's widow, Julia Barounis.

Julia knows us very well because we all helped to Bill for his commercial efforts many times.

Mr. Tulgar and his wife took many DVD's from Vassilis' home-office and carried them with their luggages as much as they can carry with themselves and returned to Istanbul two days later.

Now, we are trying to sell these first party of the Onar DVD's one by one.

This is not a commercial activity for me or for Mr. Tulgar. We, the Turks never forget our good friends and Vassilis was a very good friend. Everybody thinks that Turks and Greeks hate each other. But, we were "brothers". My nickname for Vassilis was always "brother" on his e-mail messages. Novadays, I try to deserve this emotional nickname.

All the payment which is coming from the sales is collecting in a bank account. We earn "zero" on this procedure. Everything is for Julia and her little daughter.

You may check this info by writing to Julia, to Athens. If you wish, I can send her e-mail to anybody. She knows everything on this sales operation, my friendly aim and trusts me. Therefore, you are buying this DVDs for "Bill's family", not for me.

After releasing these adverts on the trash film websites, everyday, I receive more than 20 messages from all around the world and reply all of them one by one.

I sold 120 DVD’s to date, in the first 10 days. And I sent all of them via registered airmail post to their owners from USA to Australia. And I added to all personal signed photos of Mr. Kunt Tulgar and Mr. Aytekin Akkaya. For only one DVD or for 10 DVD's, I always added 2 A4 color posters inside every parcel. This is our little present as the sales team for the supporters of this operation.

You must know this firstly... Only "Cellat" (The Executioner) finished... It was really and certainly finished. As the honorary representative of Onar Films in Turkey, I have only ONE COPY from "Cellat" in my library now. And Julia has not got this title in Athens. There was only 9 copies in Athens and Mr. Tulgar bringed them to me. And if we don't print a new 500 legal copies with Onar label as an independent work, it will never be again.

In the other side, "Kilink Istanbul"da is almost finishing. Last copies of this title are in Istanbul, in my office and I have only 25-30 copies from this title.

Another important info for you... "Karanlık Sular", "Kadın Dusmanı","Demirpence Korsan Adam" is AVAILABLE. But, their copies are in Athens now. Mr. Tulgar will fly to Athens again at the beginning of next May and will also bring me these titles.

I will keep you up to date via Murat Tolga Şen and Utku Uluer from Öteki Sinema (www.otekisinema.com) and Sinematik Yeşilçam (sinematikyesilcam.com) websites.
If you need any titles and want to support this operation, then write to me via:

onarfilms.lastfilms@yahoo.com

Best regards to all,

ALI MURAT GUVEN
Turkish film critic / Cinema historian
Onar Films’ Honorary Representative in Istanbul-Turkey

The last remaining stock of ONAR dvd's is now up for sale

Two of BILL BAROUNIS' friends in Turkey, film director Kunt Tulgar and film journalist Ali Murat Guven, are now working with Bill's widow Julia to make the last of the ONAR FILMS stock available!

Yesterday, they posted a list of ONAR DVD's that are available on the semi official ONAR Facebook page. Some are in great numbers and some are almost sold out. CELLAT (aka Turkish Deathwish) is almost gone (5 copies yesterday). I've got all of Bill's releases but I intend to grab a few anyway as a way to pay my respect one last time.

All the money goes to Bill's widow and their young daughter.

The list is here with info on prices and ordering. If you're not on FB you can also see the list here - but it's not yet translated into English.

Onar memories

Several members of the ONAR Facebook page have posted memories about the ex-rental tapes they bought from Bill Barounis but one thing we haven't really touched upon is that Bill also sold dvd-r bootlegs from his website. I only bought one of these: The Shaw Brothers film COBRA GIRL. It's on a great Celestial DVD now but altho I knew all along I was gonna keep Bill's bootleg as it offers an alternative dub and viewing experience I'm gonna treasure it even more now. I pulled it out yesterday and felt a bit sad again. Bill's handwritten title on the disc is something we're never gonna see again. The cover is a photo copied copy of the Greek VHS and it was originally too large for the case but Bill didn't take any notice of such abnormalities. He just sent it as it were. LOL. The print on the VHS (and boot) is a bashed up English dubbed print which gives the film a cool grindhouse feeling that I doubt you'll get out of the perfect Celestial DVD (which I don't own). Bill, you're much missed, my friend!

Bill Barounis

Bill Barounis has died. Rest in peace, my friend.

ONAR means dream in ancient Greek

Some of you out there know Bill Barounis from Onar Films like I do; from years of film collecting and Cinehound forum. On Facebook renowned Scandinavian collector Dag-Johnny says he's known Bill since the early 1990s.

What a great (and hotheaded) guy! An inspiration to anybody who ever tried to do stuff in the film fandom. In the presentation of his video label ONAR his last line says:

However, print quality is not something I worry about. My ONLY concern is to unearth RARE, LOST prints of entertaining, weird, pulp, never-seen-before, unheard-of titles. That was and still is my "ONAR" (dream, in ancient greek).

One should never give up hope but it seems it's only a matter of time now. It's so very sad. This is our friend Miltos' post from today:

I was in the hospital yesterday with my wife trying to encourage Juliette and Bill's mother. They were crying as Bill is in terrible situation. His brain is dead and he's bleeding from the eyes, the nose and mouth...

I saw him for a couple of minutes, for a last goodbye I guess sad.gif

Julette told me: If any of you wait something from Bill (VHS or DVD) she cannot manage it right now, but please be patient, OK?

I don't know what else to say. I know Bill but I've never met him. My thoughts go out to his close friends in Greece for many years; Miltos and Lefteris, Bill's wife and daughter, and his parents.

I can't even think of a headline...

It saddens me deeply to forward this: Turkish film director Kunt Tulgar has been to see BILL BAROUNIS (aka Vassilis) in hospital in Greece and according to Turkish film journalist Ali Murat Guven he said:

"Unfortunately Vassilis is dying step by step. He was sleeping deeply."

I'm still hoping for a miracle. :-(


Here's Ali Murat Guven's email in full. It was posted on Cinehound forum today (Friday):

"Dear friend Miltos,

Mr. Kunt Tulgar just arrived to Athens today early in the morning and he didn't want to disturb to you, directly went to the clinic.

He saw Vassilis, Julia and Vassilis' parents. He spent a few times at the hospital and gave Vassilis' honorary prize from Ankara Fantastic Film Festival to Julia.

They called me from the hospital, both of them were so sad. Tulgar said 'Unfortunately Vassilis is dying step by step. He was sleeping deeply. I kissed him and whispered to his ear 'As the Turkish filmmakers, journalists, film fans, we will never forget you and your efforts for us dear Greek brother'.

It was a very tragic moment for me. Kunt and me were crying on the phone.

Mr. Tulgar will return to Turkey on Friday.

I thank you for your friendly informations and helps. We really will never forget our Greek brother and from now on, we will remember him in every fantastic film festivals in Turkey.

Unfortunately, I could only have done this for him. I go on praying for my lovely friend.

Regards,

ALI MURAT GUVEN"

You can read the original posting (including Miltos' comments) here.


Like Kurt said, wish you were here now, Bill. :(

Terrible-terrible-terrible news about Bill Barounis!!!

Miltos in Athens posted this about our friend on Cinehound forum yesterday afternoon (Friday):

I'm affraid the news are just terrible. I tried to phone Bill but nobody picked up the phone...This afternoon my wife communicated with Julia -Bill's wife - and she told that Bill is in a clinic, in the emergencies. He is unconsious and intubated and the cancer has been spreaded around...

I don't know what to say. This is just awful. I sincerely wish Bill gets well again but it's certainly looking grimmer than grim right now. :-(

Miltos continued in his post:

No more hope? I guess there is always hope. There must be hidden somewhere.

I spend my night drinking and thinking all the adventures we had together all these years, the video huntings, the screenings, the theaters, even our dream to open a cult theater together some day...Out travels to the edge of Greece for some videos. And some talks we had about more personal matters and thoughts and feelings.

We live in an unfair and cruel world, don't we?

You can follow the thread here.

Message from Ali Murat Guven about BILL BAROUNIS' condition

This was posted recently in the comments' section on the ONAR FILMS blog. Please notice the writer uses Bill's Greek first name Vassilis.

Click the label at the bottom to read old posts about Bill's condition.

/Jack

----------------------------------------------------------------------



Dear friends,

Greetings to all. My name is Ali Murat Guven. I'am a Turkish film critic, cine historian, have been working in an Istanbul-based newspaper and a close friend of Vassilis. To date, I helped him at the preparing period of many Onar Film DVD releases.

Now, I have a very sad news for all of you. You probably know Vassilis' brain surgery operation in last winter. After that dangerous operation, Vassilis was going to be better step by step. But, at the beginning of last august, suddenly he had a stroke at home and the right side of his body was paralyzed. For one month, he can not move his right arm and right leg.

Like you, I wondered where he is and what is the final situation of Zagor DVD's. Therefore, I called him last august. His wife Julia told all the sad story to me on the phone. I have got his home number and his wife's handy number. After first news, I called his home two more times. Also some of my journalist friends called. He is on the bed, his wife takes him to therapy in the hospital everyday. Sometimes he can speak slowly, but sometimes he can't. One time, I could speak with him.

So, you must pray for Vassilis. He is a very intelligent and good guy. His heart is like an angel. But he lived very bad things this year.
I think, this cure process will go on at least 4-6 months at the hospital. Doctors are trying to walk him again, even with a stick. It is a very difficult cure and needs too much patience.

In my telephone calls, I am trying to motivate positively his wife and him. I always say to the family members, "Everything will be all right again! Please be patient!"
Please don't forget that points:

1) VASSILIS can not buy or sell nothing now and in the near future. At least for 3-4 months...

2) He can't check and reply his e-mails, official web site and blog. PC is forbidden for him. His wife Julia knows NOTHING about his chaotic bussiness relations, agreements, selling-buying rules etc. So, he can't help you in trade.
If you sent him money for a DVD release before, you musn't think negatively and wait for a limited time. He keeps his all words and if he can move again, then he will immediately send all the former releases to your addresses.

3) And finally, "Zagor's" will/must wait -at least- till October or December. He lost too much money in the hospitals since last year. He must find money to recover his business and private life again.

He is generally at home in Athens, Greece. But, he has a daily cure at the hospital. His wife, Mrs. Julia (or Hulia) Barounis can speak English very well. If you need his wife's mobile number to send him your greetings, then send me a message first. I can inform you on the matter and send the phone numbers.

alimuratg@yahoo.com

Best regards to all,

ALI MURAT GUVEN
TURKISH JOURNALIST
ISTANBUL, TURKEY

September 5, 2011 8:46 PM


From when things were good. Bill in 2008

Truly bad times!

If you've followed this blog for a while you'll remember my posts about our good friend Bill Barounis of the one-man run Onar Films in Greece (who only release more or less lost Turkish movies of the wild sort) and his difficult situation after his health went bad just over a year ago.

I'm not familiar with the details of his first "situation" but I believe he had a kind of seizure of the brain due to too much stress. He spent two weeks in hospital, came home, got a bit better, but was then diagnosed with brain tumour. He began getting treatments and this has been going for about a year now. Then about a week ago I got word from Miltos (head of Cinehound forum and also located in Athens) who told me Bill's condition had deteriorated but that he didn't have any specific details.

Today, Bill posted a brief piece of info on his Onar website to explain, and unfortunately he suffered a stroke last month! This is indeed terrible, terrible news!!!

Bill has always talked about how much of a jinx he is and how everything always goes wrong in his life in regards to Onar. The stories he's written about it have always been insane; stuff like he sent a guy to pick up a print but he fell down an elevator shaft! And someone else who was to do something for Onar got chased by gangsters. And one time there was a ghostly sound on a print and nobody in the sound studio could explain it. And lots more. And of course the worst thing was Bill's friend and Onar label mate Metin Demirhan (co-author of the book "Fantastic Turkish Cinema") who died untimely.



One time Bill said he wasn't going to post on Cinehound anymore cos he didn't want anything bad to happen to the forum since he was a jinx. I always laughed it off but, hell, maybe it's not so far fetched! It seems bad luck just haunts the poor guy. I can't tell you how truly and utterly sorry I am to learn about this latest chapter of Bill's condition! He truly deserves some good luck now! Bill, my friend, I wish you a full recovery and all the best.


From the Onar website today:

YOU MAY CARE TO KNOW THE LAST MONTH I SUFFERED A STROKE.
I SPENT MOST OF THE DAYS IN THE HOSPITAL.
NOW I CAME HOME ON A WHEELCHAIR. MY WIFE WE'LL TAKE OF THE UNSHIPPED STUFF.
SORRY. DON'T KNOW ANYMORE WHEN ZAGOR WILL COME OUT.

Photos: I haven't posted the two bottom pictures before. They are from an interview with Bill that was posted on a Turkish language website in 2008. You can read it here (or at least look at it). You'll notice they use Bill's Greek name, Vassilis Barounis.

That thar lovable diabolical KILINK guy!

Here's a fun scene from KILINK: STRIP AND KILL. Kilink was a diabolical bad guy who did what diabolical bad guys usually do: Evil deeds and other bad things. LOL. I must admit I quite like these old films and the cool thing about Kilink is that altho he is bad (like in eeevil baaaad) he was never too bad to not truly love his girlfriend. I guess it's a Turkish thing, his girlfriend was his girlfriend fullstop. However, that didn't mean he couldn't fool around like in this scene (in which, after he's fooled around, he has no further use for the girl and thus chucks her out of the window, haha). The film is on official DVD from Onar.

PS: The English title on the YT video is obviously wrong; it's Kilink, not "Klink".

Best and worst ONAR news!!!

I decided to have a break but this needs to be posted.

Today, incidentally on the 13th, Bill Barounis of Onar Films has just posted the truly awesome news about his next two DVD releases!! The two films are ZAGOR KARA BELA and ZAGOR KARAKORSANIN HAZINELERI and altho I'm not familiar with them Bill says they are the MOST RARE OF THE LOST TURKISH FILMS!!! And not only are they no longer lost but he's got them now and he'll be releasing them on DVD!!! So that's truly awesome.

If you know Bill or has read some of this posts on his blog or on Cinehound forum you'll know he often says he's "jinxed" because all kinds of bad luck always pours in over him and his releases. And I'm sure you'll remember how I posted about his being taken to hospital critically ill a little while back. I'm not superstitious but, uh, maybe he really is jinxed.

At the same time as he got the films he also got diagnosed with brain tumour!!! Yes, truly terrible news!! He's gonna go in for surgery in a week's time. Read his own post about it here. Needless to say, I wish Bill the best of luck and to make a full recovery.

Bill Barounis is back

[L-R] Bill Barounis & Tom "Shootgringoshoot" (Athens, 2010)

From what Bill is stating on his blog today he's not completely well, and the last two weeks have been very tough, but he's getting better. So glad to hear that! You can check Bill's blog post here.

The guy on the right grinning like an undertaker is Dutch/Swiss Cinehound member Tom aka "Shootgringoshoot" who went to hook up with Bill when Tom and his gf were on holiday in Greece earlier this year.

Update on Bill Barounis: Back from hospital!

Bill posted this on Cinehound today. So good to see you back, Bill!

I'm back from Hell.

Thanks to each and every one of you who cared for me and sent me their wishes!
Times like this one understands how necessary friendship can be.
And in a fucking time like this I realised I got no real father or brother, let alone friends.

Only Miltos cheered me up with his 2 visits proving he is a friend.
Lefteris has already proven he's a good friend and this time he offered to visit me but I kindly declined as I'm aware of his disgust to old people.

As for the others, in the best case they just sent an sms via cellphone or made a call promising they would sure visit me but in the end, after 14 days in the godamn hospital nobody showed up.
Ok, they may not be bad guys or my enemies, but this way they just determined and defined themselves.
For some people, friendship is limited to just watching movies together or talking about them.
From now on, I'll imitate them.

For the moment, I feel and look like the zombie guy from Bob Clark's Dead of Night or the title girl of Rollin's Living Dead Girl.

More details about my nightmare on my blog, tomorrow.
See, I'm not allowed to use the pc for more than a few minutes each time...

Update on Bill Barounis' condition

Latest news (from Thurday night) from Miltos posted on Cinehound Forum regarding Bill:

"I visited him at hospital yesterday afternoon. I'm glad to say he looks OK. I hope he could get out of there tomorrow or at least on Monday...
Of course from now on he must take care of himself better and live a more calm life.

You all have his regards & thanx!

Times like this we all feel how precious are some things...like health, friendship...and LIFE !!!!"

Bill Barounis of Onar Films in hospital

Unfortunately, I received bad news yesterday from Miltos in Athens, Greece regarding our friend Bill Barounis of Onar Films.

Bill was hospitalised over a week ago for a condition I don't have much info about but according to Miltos it's stress related and serious. However, Miltos did actually speak to Bill over the phone yesterday and Bill said he would have to stay in hospital for a few more days but that he is all right. I don't wish to sound pessimistic but as I'm sure you know lots of people minimise their bad situation when they speak to someone else in order not to make them worry. I hope he's right, of course.

In contradiction to Miltos who is also located in Athens, I live far from Greece (at the other end of Europe) but even so it's no secret Bill burns his candle at both ends with his hectic life that includes a fulltime job, tons of work with Onar (and if anybody thinks it's "just" a cheap hobby they'd be in for a major surprise. Buying film rights and putting out DVDs is a very costly and time consuming affair), and not least Bill has a family to take care of.

So if you get to read this, Bill, it goes without saying thateveryone at Cinehound, Miltos, and myself, are crossing our fingers hoping you're gonna get well soon and have a complete recovery.

The photo is one of the rare ones of Bill that I've seen; It's from last year and Bill is standing outside an old closed down cinema on the isle of Crete. Here's what he said about it on Cinehound in August of last year:

Hey, I still can't forget my recent vacation on the MAGICAL island of Crete for dozens of reasons.
One of them is an unexpected discovery.

While passing from a mountain remote little village I discovered an abandoned CINEMA! I stopped there and wanted to cry.

I immediately asked around and managed to find the owner!

It was an old widow woman, now running a local small coffee house for old people.

I even took a small "interview" from her.
The village has 1000 (one thousand) inhabitants.
They opened the Cinema in 1970 and closed it down in 1987.
It had 250 seats and in some cases, when they screened some greek commercial film there were long queues and people were even standing in the theater!

Now, she uses it as a storehouse.

She looked so enthusiastic about it and I know she thought I was crazy for looking so excited about this.

Next time I go there I'll take pictures from the inside etc etc.

GOLDEN BOY out now from ONAR Films!

Last month our good friend down south, Bill Barounis, released yet another psychotronic cult movie from yesteryear's Turkey. The film is GOLDEN BOY (aka Altin Cocuk), a spiffy James Bond clone if there ever was one. I've got a copy of it but until I get off my ass and do a proper review you can do much worse than read Jared's brand new review on his Worldweird Cinema blog here. And do be a hipster and scoop it up right away from Onar's eBay store. Turkish psychotronica is awesome and more people (i.e. YOU!) need to know about it!!

Onar interview

Marc Morris has just posted an interview with Onar Films head honcho Bill Barounis. You'll find it here.

PS: If you don't usually read these kinds of interviews with publishers cos none of 'em tell it to you straight... then this is the interview you OUGHT to read. Our friend Bill spills the beans like it is!

DO AS I TELL YOU!!!

The other day I mentioned that Jared is back doing what he does best; his Worldweird Cinema blog and today he's reviewing KADIN DUSMANI (aka Woman Despiser), i.e. the spiffy new Onar Films DVD release from our good hot-headed friend in downtown Greece Bill Barounis! You need to read Jared's review and you need to get this DVD. Do as I tell you! I received the film on Saturday and can't wait to watch it. XD
Now go here.