Documentaries

MIDNIGHT MOVIES - FROM THE MARGIN TO THE MAINSTREAM

Stuart Samuels
CAN 2005
86 min
V'05

Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream focuses on one phenomenon of Seventies cult films, and the major influence they had on pop culture and society. The film is based on the book of the same name by noted scholar and documentary filmmaker Stuart Samuels. The story begins over 30 years ago in the early Seventies, a turning point in modern American culture. It marked a revolt and a revision of the dominant cultural values of the post-war world, driven clearly by the emergence of a worldwide youth culture. This shift in aesthetics and content is best represented by a handful of feature films made during the Seventies that became known as «midnight movies». Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream is the story of these films a documentary that explores their content, their pop context and their influence by providing a unique historical and cultural window on that era. The documentary examines the movies that re-invented the film medium while pushing the boundaries of «bad taste» and «social taboos». These filmmakers shared a common desire to upset the traditional aspects of making films taking filmmaking beyond the norm by making films for ritual viewing, not box office success.

Credits
  • George A. Romero
  • Alejandro Jodorowsky
  • John Waters
  • Perry Henzell
  • David Lynch
  • Stuart Samuels
  • Richard Fox
  • Andrian Tucker
  • Bob Salter
  • Michael Bembenek
  • Robert J. Coleman
  • John Dowding
  • Lorenzo Massa
  • Kevin Rollins
  • Eric Cadesky
  • Nick Dyer
Stuart Samuels Production 68 Scollard St. Suite 301 M5R 1G2 Toronto, Kanada T 416 968 9362 stusamuels@aol.com

Menemsha Films 213 Rose Avenue, 2nd Florr Venice, CA 90291, USA T 310 452 1775, neilf@menemshafilms.com

MFA+ Filmdistribution Bismarckplatz 9 93047 Regensburg, Deutschland T 941 586 24 62 F 941 586 17 92
35 mm
bwcol
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