SXSW Preview – American Grindhouse

Fans of weird cinema, and/or those for whom 42nd St. during the '70s means anything, your film is on its way to SXSW. American Grindhouse, a movie that needs no introduction beyond its title, will be showing to the delight of many and the horror of... probably many as well. There's a world of fascination behind the cultural phenomenon, and now you've got your chance to explore it.

The feature-length documentary American Grindhouse explores the hidden history of the American Exploitation Film. The movie digs deep into this often overlooked category of U.S. cinema and unearths the shameless and occasionally shocking origins of this popular entertainment.

Exploitation Cinema has left an indelible mark on American culture, and this informative and amusing documentary proves that its principles—and popularity—endure to this day. Starting at the turn of the 20th Century, Exploitation Cinema emerged from the tents of carnie sideshows, reared its ugly head in the first true Exploitation features like Traffic in Souls and Freaks, brushed shoulders with hard-boiled Film Noir in the ‘40s, came of age with the teen flicks of the ‘50s, razzed Hollywood’s stodgy Production Code with innumerable “Nudie Cuties” and “Roughies,” rode high on the hog with the biker pix of the ‘60s and pimp-slapped some jive turkeys during the “Blaxploitation” boom of the ‘70s. American Grindhouse takes a fascinating look at the films, filmmakers, hucksters and hustlers who made it all happen.

Narrated by Academy Award-nominated actor Robert Forster, this documentary boasts exclusive interviews with filmmakers Herschell Gordon Lewis, Joe Dante, Larry Cohen, Jack Hill, Fred Williamson, John Landis and many, many more—many of them speaking out in their first-ever oncamera interviews. Bursting with clips and scenes from more than 200 of the most jaw-dropping movies ever screened, American Grindhouse is poised to be the most comprehensive motion picture ever made on the subject of Exploitation Cinema.

So sit back, enjoy the show, use protection, don’t yell at the screen and—if you come back from the snack bar alive—keep repeating to yourself: “It’s only a documentary… only a documentary… only a documentary…”

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About Marc Eastman

Marc Eastman is the owner and operator of Are You Screening? and has been writing film reviews for over a decade, and several branches of the internet's film review world have seen his name. His reviews have brought him personal praise from the director of a major motion picture, and have been used as required reading in a course at a major University. These priceless rewards, along with just bags of cash, keep him from straying from freelance writing. He is also a member of The Broadcast Film Critics Association and The Broadcast Television Journalists Association.

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