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CREATORS UNITE 10 MAGAZINES & BOOKS AD
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CREATORS UNITE 10 ISSUE 10 GLOBAL AD
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CREATORS UNITE 10 EDITOR’S LETTER We are delighted to present CREATORS UNITE #10: THE ESSENTIAL ISSUE, featuring exclusive interviews with Kelli Maroney, Lloyd Kaufman, Luigi Cozzi, and Kurando Mitsutake. Kelli Maroney, the highly respected actress that many of us have admired for decades, is without a doubt, an exceptional woman who is loved by all. We invite you to join us in getting to know her. Lloyd Kaufman, the creator of TROMA ENTERTAINMENT is the ultimate reference for filmmakers and independent creators. Lloyd’s influence cannot be ignored as the TROMA culture have permeated spirits in a profound and lasting way. We had the privilege of interviewing Lloyd, both in English and French (which he speaks without an accent). Check out our Masters at Work to learn more about Lloyd! Luigi Cozzi, known for his films Starcrash, Hercules, and Contamination, is one of those iconic artists, who continues to create essential work against all odds. We met him in Rome at the PROFONDO ROSSO store, which he co-founded with Dario Argento. We hope you enjoy this glimpse into his world. We also had the pleasure of interviewing Kurando Mitsutake, whose fascinating work restores a sense of prestige to cinematic art. Mitsutake's approach, both in substance and form, is a captivating blend of violence and aesthetics. His work is truly outstanding and transcendent. To mark the release of our 10th magazine (and 28th publication), we bring you this special "best of" issue, dedicated to four exceptional artists, featuring exclusive interviews with each of them. We hope you enjoy reading CREATORS UNITE #10 as much as we enjoyed creating it. THE ESSENTIAL ISSUE is available in digital and print formats (limited edition prints). You can find the e-book version on Issuu and hard cover books on Peecho. A soft-cover magazine in four parts (each dedicated to a specific star) is also available on Issuu and Peecho. DC Deever THE ESSENTIAL ISSUE
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CREATORS UNITE 10 TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE ESSENTIAL ISSUE Special Best Of Including Essential ITWS of Kelli Maroney, Lloyd Kaufman, Luigi Cozzi & Kurando Mitsutake PART 2: LLOYD KAUFMAN • •
Editor’s Letter - P5 Table of Contents - P7
Masters at Work 2 - Lloyd Kaufman - P8 • PASSION STORY P8: A tribute to Lloyd Kaufman by Todd Rigney • WEBTALK P22: Starter by Richard M. Martin. Interview with Lloyd Kaufman by David Dubrow et Emilie Flory • GUILTY PLEASURE P53: Filmmaking Schlock Horror & Gore! by Tony Newton Bonus Feature - P67 • MYTHMAKER: GEORGE A. ROMERO by Jason Figgis A short video essay for Creators Unite Magazine looking at George A. Romero's seminal classic horror film from 1968 - Night of the Living Dead. Written, presented and directed by Jason Figgis •
Special Thanks / Masthead - P64
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CREATORS UNITE 10 PASSION STORY
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From Toxic Avenger To Blood Hook: How Lloyd Kaufman Shaped My Love For The Absurd. by Todd Rigney
Movies have always played a role in my life. For as long as I can remember, I've loved film. One of my earliest memories of going to the movies with my parents involved a horrifying experience watching E.T. on the big screen. When the beloved alien first pops out and screams at an understandably terrified Elliot, I threw my trusty blanket over my head and left it there for the rest of the movie. My parents said other moviegoers were amused at my admittedly embarrassing reaction. I like to refer to it as self-preservation. My parents had one rule regarding my habit: no horror movies. I could watch as many bloody R-rated action movies as I wanted, but scary flicks were off the table. I scared very easily, which meant they'd have to deal with the effects Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger had on my tender psyche. Of course, that didn't stop me from wanting to watch stuff like Child's Play, but they wouldn't budge. If I wanted to watch something scary, I'd have to do it at a friend's house - which also meant I had to pretend I wasn't completely terrified out of my wits in front of my pals.
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CREATORS UNITE 10 PASSION STORY The less said about my experience with Stuart Gordon's Dolls, the better. However, my parents couldn't watch me all the time. When I got a TV and cable in my bedroom (minus the pay channels), I could consume just about anything I wanted. During that time, I discovered USA's Up All Night. Although I enjoyed watching Gilbert Gottfried host the program, Rhonda Shear seemed to mesh well with the show's choice of offbeat cinema. Of course, being a boy quickly sprinting toward puberty, Shear appealed to me in a number of different ways. Regardless, I'd come for the movies, and the kid who loved Garbage Pail Kids and low-budget sci-fi flicks discovered a side of cinema he never knew existed. I was immediately hooked. Then I watched Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman's The Toxic Avenger, and it blew my tiny little mind. My parents hit the hay around 11 p.m. every night, so as soon as I knew they were fast asleep (my mom snored notoriously), I'd turn on my little TV and tune in. That fateful evening, I'd stumbled onto The Toxic Avenger, a story about a love-struck nerd who becomes a rampaging superhero after falling into a vat of chemicals. Although I'd later learned that USA had removed a significant portion of the movie due to copious nudity and extreme violence, I didn't miss it at the time. Even in its neutered form, The Toxic Avenger felt dangerous, subversive, and a terrible secret I thought only Rhonda and I shared. It triggered something in me, and I was never the same.
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CREATORS UNITE 10 PASSION STORY I read up on the company's origins, about Kaufman's history producing and directing films, and how the TROMA frequently acquired similar lowbudget flicks from aspiring filmmakers. While some people used the internet to research French cinema and avant-garde motion pictures, I used it to become a TROMA scholar. And I don't regret a minute of it. Over the years, I've consumed everything about Kaufman I could get my hands on, from interviews to documentaries and behind-the-scenes featurettes. And while my tastes have fluctuated - I once spent over a year watching nothing but Oscar contenders and winners, which I now realize was probably a waste of my time - TROMA has remained an unwavering constant. When there's nothing on TV and I'm not in the mood for anything remotely high-brow, there's always a Kaufman-produced movie in my collection that can fill the void, The Toxic Avenger 2 being a clear favorite. Not surprisingly, my life-long love for the movies bearing Lloyd Kaufman's name has bled into my career as a writer. While a lot of my writing tends to skew toward serious characters, the situations they find themselves are seemingly lifted from an unproduced TROMA script. Weirdos, freaks, and an assortment of grotesquely violent villains litter my stories, and when that's not enough, a heavy dose of sexual innuendo, bodily fluids, and an array of unseemly scenarios get smeared across the page. As much as I'd love to tell a deep, meaningful, straightforward story that would land me on someone's bestseller list, I can't seem to get the things I've learned from Lloyd Kaufman out of my brain.
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Lloyd Kaufman - A Study
by Richard M. Martin All Photos Courtesy TROMA ENTERTAINMENT Stanley Lloyd Kaufman Jr., better known to us all as Lloyd Kaufman… Today, I will explore a few things that have lead Lloyd to where he is today: a champion of independence cinema. A good place to start given today’s issue of Creators Unite Magazine (CUM! I think Lloyd would chuckle at that one) is at the founding of TROMA ENTERTAINMENT in 1974 by Lloyd and his partner Michael Herz. When discussing Lloyd’s career, it is sometimes difficult to separate him and his work from TROMA, as the two are so closely aligned, as before TROMA, Lloyd was already making movies (don’t mention “B-Movie” around Lloyd, I found out the hard way! See my interview attached). Many would be familiar with the debut of TROMA’s mascot Toxie in The Toxic Avenger (1984) but Lloyd himself has been directing since 1969 with his debut The Girl Who Returned. During his first few years as a young aspiring filmmaker, Lloyd directed under pseudonyms. Was he embarrassed by what he was producing? Given Lloyd’s pride in his work, it is hard to know why he used such aliases like Louis Su, H.V. Spyder, David Stitt and Samuel Weil.
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Some of my own favourite stories revolve around, to put it eloquently, food poisoning. “But why?” I hear you ask again. It’s relatable, toilet humour is simply relatable, we’ve all been there, breaking out into a sweat, not a lavatory in sight, the constriction and pain bubbling up from below, your feral instincts take over and you just want to shit anywhere to end the intestinal torment! Lloyd gets that and he is unashamed. We should all be unashamed, it is part of being alive. You think a man with as much energy and get-up-and-go as Lloyd worries about what people think? Certainly not, this is the same man who joked about masturbating to the thought of me in my dressing gown, ME! Was I offended? Not at all, it was funny and contextual, we even got it recorded. Back on topic though, the question still remains “why?”. There is a throwaway line in the depths of his WIKIPEDIA entry not often discussed about Lloyd. In 1966, Lloyd went on a hiatus from his studies and spent a year in Chad for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as a pathfinder for the Peace Corps. Could this have been the catalyst for his complete disregard for cinematic reverence, which the film industry always tries to uphold? In an era of scandal and cover ups, the upfront nature of Lloyd's and TROMA’s history and body of work is to be commended. I cast my mind to the character of The Comedian from Alan Moore’s The Watchmen.
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CREATORS UNITE 10 WEBTALK Creators Unite: What are the differences you’re seeing in low-budget filmmaking today from the way you made films decades ago? Lloyd Kaufman: We have a wonderful democratization of the making of cinema. You don’t need money anymore to make a movie. But due to the development and evolution of the movie industry worldwide into a cartel or almost a monopoly—an elite club—you cannot make a living. You cannot pay your rent or eat your food and make movies. When I started, if you made a movie that was entertaining, unusual, or commercial, there was no problem getting your movie into movie theaters. There were many little studios and distributors when I started my movie company in 1974. Now they’re all gone. The industry has become consolidated, and now there’s a small number of Devil-worshiping conglomerates—and some governments—that pretty much control every movie that’s being financed. Because of that, if you’re going to make a truly independent movie (and you want to eat), you have to be partners with or become a vassal of one of those entities. Otherwise, you’ll end up like Uncle Lloyd, living under the overpass of Route 95 in a refrigerator carton, trading DVDs for bath salts. Creators Unite: Would The Toxic Avenger achieve cult status if it was released today? Lloyd Kaufman: The Toxic Avenger was ahead of its time thirty years ago. The guys who made Deadpool are TROMA fans. I’ve never met them, but they talk about TROMA all the time. Many of the elements of The Toxic Avenger, like breaking the fourth wall: we used to be criticized for having the characters talk to the audience. Deadpool does that.
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CREATORS UNITE 10 WEBTALK It’s Brechtian: Berthold Brecht. Thornton Wilder, Andy Warhol. Now having characters break the fourth wall is very chic. We were doing it thirty years ago, but nobody liked it. Thirty years ago, we were putting in rock and roll songs because we couldn’t afford to hire a Bulgarian orchestra to make the soundtrack. Now look at James Gunn, who worked for us: his soundtrack for Guardians of the Galaxy is heralded because it uses source music. Guardians of the Galaxy is a wonderful movie. A masterpiece. Most of these baby food movies are copying James Gunn and putting in source music. Our problem is that we were a little too early. Creators Unite: Who are some indie filmmakers we should be paying attention to? Who’s not getting the attention they deserve? Lloyd Kaufman: If you go to TROMA NOW, the exclusive streaming service, you can see over 100 world premiere movies. Some of them are made by the James Gunns of tomorrow. For example, Fear Town, USA and The Slashening, both written and directed by Brandon Bassham, are terrific: funny and scary. Brandon also teaches at the Upright Citizens Brigade, a comedy group like Second City. We’re writing a new movie that will hopefully begin shooting this summer. We’re doing our version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Creators Unite: You’ve successfully made the jump from filmmaker to author with your Make Your Own Damn Movie book series. Tell us about your experience writing books. Lloyd Kaufman: The first book I wrote was my memoir, written with James Gunn in 1994: All I Need to Know About Filmmaking I Learned from The Toxic Avenger. THE ESSENTIAL ISSUE
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CREATORS UNITE 10 GUILTY PLEASURE Lloyd Kaufman has had a significant influence on filmmakers and independent creators. We bring you here an exclusive interview of Tony Newton, an independent filmmaker who produced horror anthologies such as Grindsploitation (distributed by TROMA).
by Tony Newton I started out writing horror film scripts and, being a ghost-writer and script doctor on a few projects over the last ten years, it was my love of horror films that spurred me on to get into indie film making. Since then, I have made horror films, horror anthology films and VHS documentaries. I also write horror books. I watch Horror films every chance I get, I listen to horror soundtracks (the Suspiria soundtrack composed and performed by the Italian band Goblin is the most played album in my house!), I collect skulls (I think at this point in time I have more skulls than a graveyard!), and my latest venture is creating a cabinet of curiosities (so, basically anything creepy ranging from dolls heads to mummified fairies to Cthulhu statues, old rocks, vampire killing kits and old medical equipment)… Apart from that, I collect horror VHS tapes and vintage horror toys and play horror movies on VHS and super 8! I'm obsessed with schlock horror and B movies so much that one of my film companies is now called SCHLOCK FILMS!... I also own VESTRA PICTURES and BODY BAG FILMS.
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CREATORS UNITE 10 GUILTY PLEASURE Horror films can even help the viewer deal with issues like grief and overcoming fears and phobias. It sounds old fashioned just the old git "They don't make them like they did in the good old Day's" but I'm a lover of the classic video nasties; they were fresh, they were new, they were breaking the rules and making new ones along the way. I crave for an era in film like it again. A lot of today's horror films like Hostel, Paranormal activity and even The Blair Witch Project started out as great ideas and were very entertaining horror films but copycat filmmakers re-hash the same ideas and have since been milked to death, though they still pull in large numbers at theatres and then DVD sales. The strange thing is that there’s far less to the story, plot and characters in these modern studio produced horror films, than there was in the classic independent video nasty films in the eighties. There is nothing I would like more than being given a huge budget to make a really great horror movie, though I think my dream movie to remake would be Zombie Flesh Eaters or something like Driller Killer. The Indie film scene literally is blood sweat and tears. At every level, you are going to get knock backs... Indie filmmaking isn't easy, it's not pretty. You have to be a die-hard fan, have a passion for the craft, enjoy what you are doing, be it writing, directing, producing, editing (among other jobs) and, 99 % of the time in the indie horror world all of the above working with a very small or no budget.
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