Remember
Teenage Flag Burners, L.S.D.-Day
and
The Peace Zombies
? How about
Brothers Under the Covers, The Harlem Globetrotters Meet the Black Panthers
and
Nuclear Nun
? Well you must have seen
A Very Malcolm Xmas, Abra Cadaver, Christ for the Defense or Right to Live, Left to Die?
No? Well if you've never heard of these or the 417 other films made by B-movie legend Morty Fineman then you need to check out the enlightening documentary
The Independent
(playing for one week only at the Ken Cinema beginning May 3).
Earlier this year, and in celebration of 30 years in the industry, Morty Fineman took out a full page ad in Variety imploring acquisition executives to invest in his catalog of 400-plus independent films. Shortly after the ad appeared, Variety ran a story explaining that Morty Fineman didn't exist. The ad, the catalog of films, an accompanying web site and Mr. Fineman himself are all the creation of filmmaker Steven Kessler. Not since Rob Reiner created the pseudo band in This is Spinal Tap and Peter Jackson duped unsuspecting New Zealanders with Forgotten Silver , has a filmmaker pulled off a hoax of such magnitude and with such deadpan panache as Steven Kessler has with The Independent. Kessler's "mockumentary" chronicles the life and times of fictional B-movie icon Morty Fineman. The film serves up a hilarious and loving tribute to filmmaking on the fringes of Hollywood. And as Kessler says in the press material: "part of the fun of marketing The Independent in general release will be treating Morty and his films as if they are real."
