Make Your Own Damn Movie!: Secrets of a Renegade Director
by Lloyd Kaufman

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Book Reviews of Make Your Own Damn Movie!: Secrets of a Renegade Director

Book Review: Toxic Magic
Summary: 5 Stars

Of course, Kaufman doesnt claim that this struggle is easy. Indeed, he opens his new book with an explicit description of having to fight off an army of rats in the basement of his companys headquarters, financially unable to pay anyone else to do the job. After thirty years as a proudly defiant filmmaker and studio head, one price of his iconoclasm is that he still has to do much of the dirty work himself. This is far from being his only disadvantage, and while he ultimately gives the impression of joy in doing exactly what he wants to be doing, he doesnt shy away from expressing his darkest moments of doubt.

A painting is always quite moral said Barbey DAurevilly, when it is tragic and gives the full horror of the thing it depicts. While this comment is seemingly more applicable to Goya, and Kaufman is most likely to deal with tragedy by creatively mooning it, I do find an abiding morality in Tromas enthusiastic tackling of societys worst fears, and this is fully mirrored in his books. While covering a broad spectrum of modern problems, the main thrust of the book is independent filmmaking, and although he provides a great deal of encouragement towards personal films, even an insistence on the necessity of such work, he also graphically illustrates the turmoil involved. Filmmakers will walk away from reading this book feeling far more prepared for the difficulties that lie ahead. Kaufmans first-hand experience with these tribulations has never been matched in any book Ive read. The rats are only the beginning.

Back to those rats: Kaufman suggests that they are a likely by-product of a McDonalds moving in next door to the Troma building, and his battle against the ensuing infestation provides a fitting metaphor for Tromas uneasy relationship with corporate America. The fight for independent art in a capitalist society has an intrinsic political dimension, and readers who consider entertainment and politics as separate entities are bound to be discomforted by Kaufmans tirades against bureaucratic elites. That is precisely what elevates this book over the average how to moviemaking manual. Like the best punk musicians, Kaufman isnt concerned with being polite. Also like punk, Kaufman isnt terribly concerned with being orderly, which, in addition to the books importance as a ruthlessly honest guide to celluloid self-expression, makes it much more fun to read. He still manages to thoroughly cover all the bases of getting a film made, but beyond that, his gleeful digressions provide a splendid reflection of Kaufmans amazingly eclectic mind. Who else would name-check Marcel Proust and Brian Wilson in the same passage? Readers of Kaufmans earlier book, All I Need to Know About Filmmaking I Learned From the Toxic Avenger will recall that his earlier romp included appearances by everyone from Lemmy of Motorhead to Haitian dictator Baby Doc Duvalier. Spend some time in this mans mind, and the most diverse cultural elements start to fit together. Its like watching A&E, but with a far more wicked sense of humor.

Fans of All I Learneds inclusion of perspectives other than Lloyds (in a style reminiscent of A Man Cut in Slices, the book for which Henry Miller effusively expressed admiration in Tropic of Cancer: Chapter one: the man in the eyes of his family. Chapter two: the same in the eyes of his mistress, etc.) will be pleased to know that Make Your Own Damn Movie also gives ample voice to various guests, even accommodating an extended debate between Lloyd and a younger collaborator on film vs. digital video. This not only expands the insights of the book, it offers a glimpse at the friendly animosity that appears to fuel Troma productions.

Roger Corman referred to Troma films as an intersection between the anarchic and the ridiculous, as astute an observation as screenwriter James Gunns description of Kaufmans work as emotional gumbo. These remarks apply themselves equally well to Kaufman as an author, as his two books wildly blend comedy and catastrophe, triumph and despair, control and chaos. Although it has been suggested that in real life he is a civilized and devoted family man, it is also abundantly evident that Kaufman has more than his fair share of Enkidu in him, a wild creature willing to wrestle anyone and anything that stands in his way, no matter how powerful, even himself. Both of his books provide an exhilarating read, for those who hope to follow in his footsteps and others who are simply interested in how he made it this far. I found Make Your Own Damn Movie to be more beneficial as a tutorial, but in either case, I was deeply moved and inspired as a filmmaker and as a human being by Kaufmans honesty and perseverance. It certainly helps that even in writing of his greatest hardships, Kaufman can find the joke, and is generous enough to share it.

Summary of Make Your Own Damn Movie!: Secrets of a Renegade Director

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