David F. Friedman
Savage! Sadistic! Thrill hungry! When it came to independent filmmaking in the sunshine state, William Grefé was the wildest of the wild! During the 1960s and '70s, the Miami-based producer/director transformed the darkest corners of the Florida swamps into his own personal backlot. From rampaging crocodiles possessed by an ancient Seminole witch doctor (DEATH CURSE OF TARTU) to a slithering serpent named STANLEY, William Grefé would grind out low-budget exploitation films for drive-ins and hardtops around the world. Now, without the benefit of cages or other protective devices, the untold story of Florida's most daring moviemaker comes to the screen...IN PSYCHEDELIC COLOR!
Before the advent of modern-day pornography, a vast and rapidly-paced world of smut peddling was the norm, complete with its own secret history. This documentary reveals the untold story of American cinema's gloriously sordid cinematic past. Starting in the 1920s, expert exploiteer David F. Friedman and Henenlotter navigate us through more than five salacious decades of skin flicks. It's the true story of dirty movies, traced in elegant detail from the bizarre locations where these nudie shorts were screened to the ongoing legal battles fought by their promoters. And of course there are the stories of the innovators themselves, people who often risked their own security and livelihood to make these films, believing in some way that what they were doing wasn't a 'bad' thing - and that it could rake in some dough.
Take an outrageous ride through this wild world of exploitation films with this thoroughly entertaining documentary, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS – THE GODFATHER OF GORE! Featuring cult director John Waters, Drive-In Movie Critic Joe Bob Briggs, Herschell Gordon Lewis himself and a “cast of thousands,” you’ll witness the innocent bare-naked era of Nudie-Cuties before Lewis schocked the world with “Blood Feast,” the first ever gore film!
A lobster-clawed freak from a lurid sideshow wreaks a wrath of bloody horror through a small rural community.
The son of Charles Manson attempts to have his father released from prison by recreating the Manson murders with a girl he meets who is obsessed with the original Manson murders. This film was in production for over 2 years due to various conflicts and, though filming wrapped in 2003, it has yet to get a legitimate home video release.
Fuad Ramses III (J.P. Delahoussaye) returns to Miami to reopen his grandfather's defunct catering company. This arouses the interest of the local sheriff (Mark McLachlan), who holds Fuad's family reputation in ill favor. Fuad is soon, however, asked to cater the sheriff's wedding by his mother-in-law, Mrs. Lamply (Melissa Morgan), and fiancee, Tiffani (Toni Winne). After finding his grandfather's statue of Ishtar, an Egyptian goddess, in a utility closet, he becomes possessed by her evil spirit. He then goes on to create the 'blood feast' his grandfather failed to do, by killing young women in the area and making them into party food for the wedding.
Hollywood is a town of tinsel and glamour; but there is another Hollywood, a place where maverick independent exploitation filmmakers went toe to toe with the big guys and came out on top.
A documentary about the history of exploitation films that focuses on the careers of legendary producers David F. Friedman and Dan Sonney.
An American man unwittingly gets involved with werewolves who have developed a serum allowing them to transform at will.
Kim Taylor inherits her grandfather's drive-in theatre. She must raise $25,000 over one weekend or the bank will take the property from her.
Actor Ned Beatty hosts a look at the genre known as "exploitation" films. Interviews with some of the producers and directors of these films are shown, along with scenes from and trailers for some of these films.
The story of a group of people who are making a film about life in high school in the 1950's.
Ilsa is a warden at a Nazi death camp that conducts experiments on prisoners. Ilsa's goal is to prove that woman can withstand more pain and suffering than men and should be allowed to fight on the front lines
A documentary about the hearings of President Nixon's Commission on Obscenity, featuring adult-film producer David F. Friedman (one of the producers of this film) testifying before Congress, and involved in the production of one of his films, "Trader Hornee."
A private detective journeys to Africa to find a legenday white gorilla. The gorilla turns out to be an escaped Nazi war criminal.
Two female Army agents go undercover at a Nazi prison camp to get information from a scientist being held there.
During Prohibition, two gangsters go to war with each other. (Plus, sex!)
A short silent comedy in which a young actress enters a casting director's office for an audition. The director (loveable Bob Cresse) appears to be bored by her demonstration of acting and cuts to the nitty gritty. The actress is unabashed and procedes to do a striptease. As she completes her "act" the door opens to admit... the REAL casting director! The bogus director fumbles with his fancy cravat, removing it and begins to use it as a duster... exit the office cleaner, stage left.
A schoolteacher arrives in town with the map to a gold mine. The lesbian dance-hall owner schemes to steal the map.
Two mob money couriers, Frankie and Tony, have their latest package of $1 million stolen by two con women, Dana and Marcia, in which the men must find the women to recover the money before they become marked men.
A crazed sea captain goes on a bloody rampage after his vessel is commissioned by a sleazy film producer and a trio of vixens.
A struggling Hollywood actress is dragged by her agent to judge a beauty pageant in a nudist colony.
Sharon is a young office worker who sexually teases, seduces and then cries 'rape' on various men just to see them emotionally suffer for her own man-hating, twisted amusement leading to one lovestruck boyfriend being sent to prison, the financial ruin of another, and the meltdown and death of a third victim.
A sado-masochistic fantasy of a guy dreaming about flogging a chained up Stacey Walker. Then it becomes a nightmare with Walker as a cruel dominatrix and the guy bound to a post. "Dreamgirl", aka "Stacey Walker, Dreamgirl" (c. 1966) is a strange little film by producer David F. Friedman that was released as a short. But it also appears to be an excerpt or alternate take from "A Smell of Honey, a Swallow of Brine" (1966) with legit actor Sam Melville. (archive.org)
Two young thugs kidnap a young girl and keep her in the basement of an old warehouse where they forcibly make her their sex slave.
Gore specialist H.G. Lewis' gruesome tale of an artist who becomes a success after using human blood in his paintings.
Six people are lured into a small Deep South town for a Centennial celebration where the residents proceed to kill them one by one as revenge for the town's destruction during the Civil War.
Nightclub singer Eddie and comedian Tommy, working in a roaring twenties style club, meet and being dating publicist Allison and photographer Cynthia, respectively. They soon discover that the women spend weekends at a nudist club which the guys disapprove.
A naive and innocent teenage girl is blackmailed into modeling in the nude for a photographer who is in league with a teenage gang whose boss illegally sells photos of teenage girls being abused and degraded.
A young millionaire is obsessed by a woman he keeps dreaming about but doesn't know. After an investigation, he discovers that she is a large-breasted stripper who spends a lot of time in a nudist camp. He decides to follow her there.
In the sleepy suburbs of Miami, seemingly normal Egyptian immigrant Fuad Ramses (Mal Arnold) runs a successful catering business. He also murders young women and plans to use their body parts to revive the goddess Ishtar. The insane Ramses hypnotizes a socialite in order to land a job catering a party for her debutante daughter, Suzette Fremont (Connie Mason), and turns the event into an evening of gruesome deaths, bloody dismemberment and ritual sacrifice.
A man imagines that everybody he sees is naked. That's... that's really about it.
Herschell Gordon Lewis and David Friedman collaborated on this nudie classic that features the stunning Rusty Allen as a teacher who must defend herself against the school board after they find her naked in a nudist colony's magazine. Allen argues that the sun is a source of happiness and morality. The institute's lawyer decides to investigate for himself, and soon everyone is swimming, playing volleyball, and more, all sans clothes.
Chicago private detective Russell Harper and his assistant, Diana, travel to a Florida nudist camp to find a missing husband and both of them soon become embroided with the life of nudists while falling in love with each other.
Man and his partner, a photographer, start up a men's magazine called "Pagan." The magazine becomes a success, he leaves his fiancee, marries his star model, and complications ensue.
A bored young girl looking for excitement gets involved with nude modeling, drugs and a rock band.
