Giuseppe Andrews
A Jesus church for the deaf worker, who meets a girl named Frankie through a sex finder website. Her experimentation with robotic sex bugs, and his fears over the crazy pastor of the church interweave with vampire guitar freak outs, sex acid, paper towel photo shoots, and dreams of dolls in bottles.
While the rest of America slept, DIY filmmaker/musician Giuseppe Andrews has made over 30 experimental features. Set in some demented alternate universe (i.e. Ventura, California), they are populated by real-life alcoholics and drug addicts, trash-talking senior citizens and trailer park residents dressed in cow outfits and costume-shop wigs, acting out booze-fueled vignettes filtered through Giuseppe's John Waters-meets-Harmony Korine-meets-Werner Herzog sensibility. Director Adam Rifkin (Look, The Dark Backward) creates a wildly surreal, outrageously funny and strangely touching portrait of a truly Outsider Artist inhabiting a world few of us even know exists, as he follows Giuseppe and his seriously impaired troupe on the production of his latest 2-day opus, Garbanzo Gas, starring Vietnam Ron as a Cow given a weekend reprieve from the slaughterhouse at the local motel. An Official Selection of Hot Docs 2014, Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF) and the Rooftop Films Summer Series.
A man dies of cat food poisoning and has a panoramic life review.
Underneath Times Square, there's a strip club filled with beautiful women. Behind the club's bathroom door is Shoes, a bathroom attendant. For three years, Shoes gives advice, compliments or a sympathetic ear to his visitors, getting occasional tips. But on the night of his three-year anniversary at the club, Shoes' customers and coworkers start to make him look into his own life.
A high school prom faces a deadly threat: a flesh-eating virus that spreads via a popular brand of bottled water.
For George Ponso, it’s not a question of how he will die, but when…and he’s not taking the ticking of Father Time lightly. George is desperate - desperate to connect with people again. Desperate to revisit his past. And desperate to leave his mark on this puny planet before the Grim Reaper makes a fateful trailer park call.
“Toggle Switch is a little person living in a world of her own design. Deadly with pets, and equally unhinged with her family, she spends her days watching exercise videos and her nights in pursuit of bizarre extracurricular activities. Along the way, we meet a bearded 12 year old, a closet junkie, and the skinniest fitness guru in the entire self-help universe, all getting by on chutzpah, camaraderie, and a healthy dose of vagina-based show tunes…Orzo is by far the funniest thing Giuseppe Andrews has ever done. It’s a comedy plain and simple, a character-based humoresque that proves Andrews’ mantle as both a writer and a wit.” (review excerpt by Bill Gibron)
For film historian Greg Connor, things haven’t been going well. He’s had mental problems ever since the day he ruined his chance at being a DVD commentator. During the featurette for a favorite noir classic, he committed an unspeakable, unnatural act. Now his shrink is suggesting he take a small vacation to get away from it all. Running out of gas, Connor comes across a fallen crossing guard, a psychotic with a pick axe, a young lady named Distosia, who is studying to be part of a cult, one of his favorite soap stars, and a young man he once photographed in the nude. All of this leads to a kind of psychotic breakdown where Connor’s sexual dysfunction manifests itself in more and more bizarre ways. Eventually, there’s nothing left to do but dance and sing. Besides, life’s not too bad when you think about it.
The country is at war over a natural resource. The strange cosmic force known as "Schoof" is slowly making the human race insane. The news has ceased to make sense. "Schoof" has affected each member of Tracy's family, leaving her unaffected. That's what she thinks as a scientist, a test subject and a group choral will be the galaxy's only hope.
When his mother dies, a teenager takes a road-trip in a stolen car to find his long-lost brother. Along the way he discovers a profound connection with the car-owner and with himself as well.
Cat Piss centers on director Andrews’ newfound friendship with resident Wally Lavern. Under the premise that he would live with the man 24/7 and record their “relationship”, Piss provides the kind of retro-realistic view into the world of the marginalized that few films – let alone filmmakers – would ever dare discuss. As our director helps out around the decaying trailer, as Lavern has imaginary political debates with a broken TV, as flutes are practiced and cats are comforted, this is what the end of one’s days really looks like.
The narrative driving Holiday Weekend is centered on people and how they relate to each other. A young couple quibbles over an impulsive decision to steal a coffee machine, while the victimized pair sans Sanka plays an unusual game of affection and abuse. A young man with werewolf-ism moves in with a fledgling songwriter, while elsewhere, an injured individual with Tourettes seeks council from a high priced lawyer. All the while, some elderly homosexual lovers reunite, dancing to celebrate the rekindling of their long dormant love. Giving us his spin on spirituality and the afterlife, Holiday Weekend is like several small sketches that add up to one incredible portrait.
Wiley Roth finds a severed human finger in his kitchen one night. Understandably freaked out, in a search across Los Angeles that brings them in contact with psychics, ineffectual police, crooked taxidermists, mysterious neighbors who might be on drugs, and a nine-fingered woman named Cheryl who might, improbably, end up being the girl of his dreams.
When a lucky cow wins an all expense paid weekend at a local hotel, it can’t believe its good fortune. It gets to relax, unwind, and avoid a trip to the slaughterhouse - at least for a few days. Of course, it couldn’t imagine the menagerie of madmen it would run into. Down the hall is a pair of drug addled dimwits who are desperate for something to eat. The cow becomes their main focus. Meanwhile, two different spree killers are wrecking havoc. One murders at the command of some erroneous bath linen. The other listens to a voice inside his shoe, the instructions resulting in even more dead bodies. All the while, our contented animal tries to accommodate everyone’s needs, which typically revolve around a room service meal of meat and potatoes.
In Everlasting Pine, a famed composer is having problems with his wife. She's still vital and alive, seeking occasional sexual congress from a new age yoga guru. He, on the other hand, is moody and temperamental. lost in a world of ritualistic habits and dark obsessions. When he is commissioned by a friend to write a requiem for his dead father, the same old feelings flare up. When the cuckold learns of the price his problems have wrought, he sees only one violent way out.
When we first meet the characters from Golden Embers, they are people in transition. One is a bride to be, hoping her ex-addict brother can stay sober long enough to walk her down the aisle. The sibling is a sexually obsessed dope fiend, desperate for any kind of psychosexual release - and lots of wacky white powder. Locked up in a hotel room, freebasing his sordid memories and many erotic needs, he slowly comes unglued. Soon, we are witnessing rampant mood swings, murderous hallucinations, and the world's most misguided nuptials, complete with dancing.
From Critically-Acclaimed Underground Filmmaker Giuseppe Andrews (Trailer Town, Touch Me in the Morning) comes Period Piece, his most ambitious film experiment yet! Featuring talking tater tots, fornicating teddy bears, a smoking dead pig and the most disturbing visage of God ever put on screen, Period Piece threads together multiple plotlines following a unique assortment of tragicomic characters living along the Ventura Highway. There’s the retired police officer (Walt Dongo), broken and homeless after the untimely death of his son during a birthday camping trip. The elderly homebound father (Tyree), hopelessly doomed to pantomime the sexual conquests of his glory days with an imaginary prostitute named Serenity. The French Midget writing his epic screenplay about a half-man/half-stuffed animal chauffeur. This truly independent masterpiece takes Andrews one-of-a-kind aesthetic to a new level of surreal hilarity, creating a portrait of love and death you’ll never forget.
There are four main characters at the center of this surreal screwball comedy, a quartet of humanity hampered by their own flaws. In a dusty hotel room, a depressed husband (Lloyd Kaufman) reads a "Dear John" letter from his long suffering spouse. In another location, an old man (Tyree) tells the tale of his randy rollercoaster existence -- and the hunchback son he fathered. In a trailer across town, a recluse (Vietnam Ron) is loosing his eyesight and reflects on his failed relationship with his blonde bimbo wife (Maryanne Spychalski). Elsewhere, a flamboyant real estate agent entertains clients and friends in a tumble down track house. Together they form the spine of a storyline that shifts between scatological discussions of intestinal gas and equally meaningful mediations on contentment, and the pursuit of friendship.
Doily lives with his psychic wife Haley Comet. She does readings, and has sex with clients on the side. He spends his days dishing with his friends Terrace and Sabado. At the beginning of one memorable summer, Doily is chased by a bee. The insect eventually hunts down and kills his buddy Terrace, who is then brought back to life by a mysterious alien object. Next, a client of Haley finds his hair cut and shampooed - and he didn’t do it. Then a dinner party at friend Colby Jack’s turns weird when the host is transformed into a giant pot pie. In between, our hero is attacked by a monster and a household slipper, and rediscovers his love for crystal meth. But when buddy Terrace turns up again, this time as a talking VCR, Doily starts getting scared. While Haley considers all these events mere “freak occurrences”, her lover man is convinced they are signs that someone is trying to kill him.
Tired of living under a bridge like a troll, middle-aged homeless man Ronzoni decides to reconnect with his roots. Buying a bowling ball as a Christmas gift, he heads out to visit his retired father and distant sister Agatha who live in a local trailer park. Unfortunately, they both think he’s a wholly worthless bum. When a large box lands on his chest, Ronzoni is stuck behind his dad’s double wide and no matter how hard they try, they just can’t seem to get the empty cardboard container off his body. Wanting to escape his incessantly whining, the pair head off to a hotel. There, Agatha meets Nicholas, an in-room escort who opens her eyes to the joy of music and the fun of making anti-porno.
Nothing more than a simple set up – four of Andrews’ company getting smashed in a seedy hotel room – this improvised look at men out to party is strangely spellbinding. There are the typical taunts about penis size and sexual prowess, and with liquor involved, things soon turn violent.
Tweek City is a week in the life of Bill, a potentially closeted, half-Latino, small-time speed dealer in San Francisco's Mission District. Bill is stuck on an endless walk from one empty experience to the next. Only Bill's friend Jerm has the ability to connect and ground him in reality. When Jerm makes an ill-advised stage dive, Bill plunges into a downward spiral that takes him on a nocturnal journey through the streets of San Francisco and ultimately down to Los Angeles where he crashes his high school sweetheart's wedding. From his sleep-deprived, hallucinogenic state, Bill fails miserably in a desperate attempt to reconnect with his first and only love. With nowhere else to go, Bill jacks a car and ends up at the deserted drive-in theater of his childhood where he is forced to confront the ghosts that he had tried to leave behind.
Gregory is having problems with his mom and dad. He’s getting older and more senile by the day. She is sleeping with live-in handyman Richard. Even worse, all have failed dreams and aspirations. Father wanted to be a poet. Mother had visions of being a singer. And Richard tried a career as a rapper under the name ‘PO Box’. When a secret from the past threatens their domestic bliss, the police must be called in to quell the storm.
“After a fall at a local bar, an elderly alcoholic asks his adult grandsons for one last favor. Seems several years ago he took five hookers to a remote hotel suite known as the Pony Room and spent the entire evening satisfying their every need. Now, nearing death and continuously soused to the gills, he wants Ed and Burt to take him back there for a weekend of reminiscing. The road trip will be difficult, especially with Grandpa’s lack of control (bowel or otherwise), but what waits there is even more disconcerting – a cursed can of chicken noodle soup.” (review excerpt by Bill Gibron)
Money is much more than the root of all evil. It’s the great social destabilizer, a stigma that makes the haves seem better and the have-nots hang their heads in shame. It causes people to do things, reprehensible things, just to keep from drowning in debt, and it offers the slightest glimmer of hope for those who really haven’t a chance in Hell of ever seeing a substantial payday. The crass class distinctions created, the undeniable stress of being without and the immoral drive of having too much, sets the stage for some of our most complex and compelling stories. Giuseppe Andrews clearly agrees. His amazing masterpiece, Air Conditioning, takes a neo-realistic look at how far certain citizens will go to enjoy the simple comforts of civilization - said acts including, lying, cheating, and most horrifically, murder.
On their way to Spring Break, college kids take a detour through an old Southern town. The people of Pleasant Valley insist the kids stay for their annual barbecue celebration... but instead of getting a taste of the old South, the old South gets a taste of them!
Plop - named after the sound he made upon his birth - is a notorious infant caregiver wanted by the police. Apparently, unwitting parents (including a particularly proud gay couple) have hired the semi-retarded redneck nanny under the pretense that he takes good care of his toddler charges. Instead, Plop beats and humiliates the children, taking out his own sad mental issues out on them. Thanks to an ex-girlfriend. However, the cops are hot on his trail. It won’t be long before the long arm of the law, or a mangled baby with a can of soup, ends Plop’s cruel crime spree once and for all.
Material from this film (as well as other sequences previously shot but never used in other films) were eventually edited into what became Period Piece in 2006.
An artist named Poo paints chicken pot pies with the excrement of homeless people. With the help of an adult filmmaker in his drug rehab course, he hopes to earn a fortune by impregnating his wife and making a "pregnant porn" film.
Bronze is a down on his luck thespian who needs a break badly. Literally living off his one recognizable moment in the TV cop show Boys in Blue (he played a TV stealing criminal), he spends his days hustling, his nights arguing with his live-in companion, a transvestite Christian rock wannabe. After a beer can robbery goes wrong, Bronze gets his songwriting pal an audition. When that falls through, he hits rock bottom. A bout with cellphone-induced ear cancer and an incident with a haphazardly thrown can of soup seals his sad fate.
In this third volume of the Best of Tromadance, viewers can sample fifteen of the best films from the 2003 and 2004 Film Festivals totally over three hours. Titles include Giuseppe Andrews' "Dribble;" winner of the Tromadance / Kodak Independent Soul Award, Kevin Maher's "Monkey Brains," "Kung-Fu Kitties" and "Marijuana's Revenge" by the filmmaking team of Philip Gunn, Daniel Guiterrez and David Valdez. Also included are Matt and Greg Brookens' "Skunk Ape!?," Jamie Greco's "PDA Massacre" and others.
Trailer Town is a unique motion picture experience, truly unlike anything you've seen before. A sexual interpretation of inner violence, about out-of-work comedians living in a trailer park run by a soap opera star. The old comedians cannot work anymore due to their addictions, and come up with the filthiest, most offensive routines they can devise, to strike out at mainstream society, their only audience being themselves. When Bill recieves an eviction notice for having too many wild parties, he takes to the roof of his trailer with a rifle, and declares he is a victim of an 'aluminum holocaust.'
A group of five college graduates rent a cabin in the woods and begin to fall victim to a horrifying flesh-eating virus, which attracts the unwanted attention of the homicidal locals.
Wiggly Harris is a volunteer worker at a senior citizen's home. Due to his obsession with stealing wigs, Wiggly has a warrant out for his arrest. Freaked out that his unemployment benefits have almost run out and bombarded with relationship issues(his stripper girlfriend demands that Wiggly lose his virginity to her and start meeting her sexual needs in one of the most memorable sex scenes ever filmed) Wiggly is quickly losing his grip. Further frustrated by his oddball parents (the father, a religious fanatic who feels the end of the world is coming soon, and the mother, who collects photos of food) Wiggly comes to a horrific end.
Black Jesus just can’t take it any more. He hates his dying wife and his transsexual son - but not for the reasons you think. She won’t let him obsessively cut coupons, and he/she fetishizes guns to the point of distraction. His other daughter is a dope fiend, and his recently deceased father was an out and out pervert. And don’t even bring up autistic child prodigy Hobie. Desperate to play the violin, the partially blind boy spends his days roaming around the city, instrument in hand and toilet paper tube up to his bad eye. When the youthful talent meets European Ernie, it seems like everything will be all right. He coaches the child, and even suggests someone who might be able to teach him a thing or two. In the meantime, Mom and the sexually confused Shamu build a bomb. With Black Jesus out of the house, they intend to avenge the cultural attacks on religion once and for all.
“Two wannabe ‘gangsta’ white boys share a trailer – and a case of squirrel-influenced stomach flu. An old man channels the spirit of a horse known as Mr. Ted and writes a hate-filled tome in the steed’s name. Two meth dealers discover a rat in their lab and one adopts it as his very own pet. A young man must face the fact that his mother is a whore and his father is her pimp. A middle aged man must face the fact that his mother is dying of emphysema and losing her marbles. And what do they all have in common, aside from an addictive need to drink the latest alcohol-laced specialty beverage, Pussy Juice? Why, it’s the unending craving for sex and/or sexual fulfillment – and sometimes, not in the way “normal” people view such biological and physiological desires.” (review excerpt by Bill Gibron)
Apartheid has been ordered to Green Hockers Rehab Center for excessive drinking. His habit is so bad that his life has become one continuous case of the DTs. As a matter of fact, a disembodied old man with the same initials seems to be controlling his attempt at sobriety. Forced to wear a monkey around his neck to highlight his problem, said simian comes with two bags of rocks around its legs. The longer Apartheid stays, the more rocks will be removed and the less weight he will have to be subjected. Of course, DT doesn’t help. He offers disquieting visions of smiley faced stones that punch people out, remote control apes that choke people to death, and others with equally oppressive addictions of their own. As he battles with the bottle, losing most of the time, all Apartheid wants to do is get away from this abusive clinic. Little does he know that, just like Hotel California, he can check out any time he likes, but he can never, ever, ever, leave.
60 year old widow and cystic fibrosis sufferer Daisy (Gayle Wells) hooks up with crack addicted lonely ex-cop Rick (Walt Dongo) in a trailer park romance.
On Skeet’s twelfth birthday his older brother Randy buys him his first surfboard. Suddenly his summer turns to the endless search for the perfect wave, wild times and beach parties and eventually, finding his own daring adventures when Randy’s attention turns to a girl. Beyond his wildest dreams, Skeet is taken under the wings of surfing legend Jim Wesley who gives Skeet first-hand lessons in hot-dogging. Meanwhile, Randy, still dealing with the loss of his father and trying to fill his shoes, is jealous of Jim’s influence on Skeet and isn’t thrilled when Jim begins a relationship with their single mom. Tangled by the conflict between his brother and his newfound father figure, Skeet retreats to his room while longing to surf.
Guiseppe Andrews stars as Coney Island, a young man who is dealing with a lot of the issues facing today's youth: divorce, unemployment, sexual inadequacy and a gigolo father who has just been released from prison! Ever the optimist, Coney Island spends his days singing songs of hope to senior citizens and riding miniature broncos at his favorite playground. Pushed by his unfulfilled girlfriend to grow up, Coney Island turns to Daddy Bill (Bill Nowlin) for advice in the ways of love, embarking on a grotesque and wildly hilarious journey of self discovery.
In 1978, a Kiss concert was an epoch-making event. For the three teen fans in Detroit Rock City getting tickets to the sold-out show becomes the focal point of their existence. They'll do anything for tickets -- compete in a strip club's amateur-night contest, take on religious protesters, even rob a convenience store!
It was adapted as a stage play in 1967, and was remade as a television movie in 1998 starring Lukas Haas, Sidney Poitier and Brittany Murphy.
Geeky teenager David and his popular twin sister, Jennifer, get sucked into the black-and-white world of a 1950s TV sitcom called "Pleasantville," and find a world where everything is peachy keen all the time. But when Jennifer's modern attitude disrupts Pleasantville's peaceful but boring routine, she literally brings color into its life.
Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two thugs who tried to break into/steal his truck. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.
On July 2, a giant alien mothership enters orbit around Earth and deploys several dozen saucer-shaped 'destroyer' spacecraft that quickly lay waste to major cities around the planet. On July 3, the United States conducts a coordinated counterattack that fails. On July 4, a plan is devised to gain access to the interior of the alien mothership in space, in order to plant a nuclear missile.
A family's life is thrown into comical chaos after mom accidentally drinks her inventor husband's latest concoction, an invisibility potion.
Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher is an American sitcom which aired on the WB from 1996 until 1998. The executive producers of the program, Dennis Rinsler and Marc Warren, drew on their own experiences as former teachers in New York and actually based the character that Mitch Mullany played on their real life friend, John Freno. Freno was a music teacher in the same elementary school as Dennis and Marc and was beloved by the students of the school.
Steven Lidz, unhappy with his home life since his mother became sick, moves in with his two eccentric uncles. As Steven grows closer to his uncles, he learns how to cope with his emotions and to value his own uniqueness.
Seventeen years after slaughtering all but one member of a family, a vicious serial killer known only as "The Sandman" awaits execution. But first, his jailers allow a minister to visit the killer to give him last rites, unaware that the minister is a voodoo priest and an ally of the condemned prisoner. The priest places a hex on the Sandman so that when he is executed, his soul migrates into a new body made of sand. To sever his ties with his former life and achieve absolute power, the sandman must find and kill a man named Griffin, the sole survivor of the last family murdered by the killer
A rich boy desperate for attention makes friends with the dinosaurs of "Prehysteria!". Prehysteria! 2
"Baby Swiss is obsessed with a strange science fiction film. She fantasies about living in its futuristic ideals, and keeps a separate DVD copy in a strongbox under the house just to be on the safe side. Naturally, this drives her unattended husband to the local whorehouse, known as The Village of the Moon. There, he meets up with other unhappy men and drowns his sorrows in high priced call girls. In the meantime, Baby Swiss discovers a kind of platonic love with a like minded neighbor. He is so desperate to be part of her life that he will wait outside her window. Their relationship will turn on whether she cleans the glass, or closes the blinds. And all the while, a homeless Greek chorus champions the freedom of living on the streets, unencumbered by the mindless machinations of being part of this so-called “proper society”" (review excerpt by Bill Gibron)
On his 62nd birthday, confirmed lazybones Herbopolus grabs his nest egg and buys himself a new trailer, a fine 5th Wheel. Now all he has to do is sit back and wait for the Social Security checks to start rolling in. In the meantime, his insane brother Bananas Foster escapes from the Catalina Mental Institution and, looking for a place to hole up, gets Herbopolus to let him stay in his swanky new digs. So does their dad, a sex change octogenarian who's lesbian lover has kicked him out of the house. When the government fails to come through, they resort to collecting and recycling aluminum cans to make ends meet.
A serial killer is stalking local laundromats, murdering customers for their shoes. It is up to a young man and his girlfriend to protect themselves from the feet-fleecing fiend. (review excerpt by Bill Gibron)
"Pierogi is a recent convert to a raw food diet who wants to fast for 30 days. Naturally, this causes concern among his friends and family, including: a father whose stuck in a psychological warp involving mountain lions and tuxedos; an uncle whose had his blood replaced by coconut water; a brother who believes he’s unfit to be a dad; a newlywed neighbor whose obsessed with opossums; and another who wants to use his available land to construct a cemetery (for people or pets). Taking his issues to a local therapist, he finds some solace. Still looking for enlightenment, however, he seeks out a meditation guru who has a unique take on the practice. Finally content to be part of the process, not necessarily the cure, Pierogi tries to act as mediator between his warring relatives and the toxins tripping through his body. It’s quite a journey." (review excerpt by Bill Gibron)
a cop gets fired from his job and becomes homeless along with his son this is one of giuseppe andrews lost films, it was made in 2003 and only got released in pieces via period piece, not much is known about the whereabouts of utopia blues or if anybody even has a copy still
"In this vignette oriented piece, a group of people discuss their own often unique perspective on life. Unlike other titles in his canon, Esoterica is completely apropos. Each sequence suggests the inner psychological struggles of seemingly normal people, the whole “private conversation in their head” thing given new and startling voice over reality. They are talking to themselves - and responding. All the standard players are here - icons from the past (Vietnam Ron, Walt Dongo) as well as new faces (Nolan Ballin, Sara Flanders) fresh and buoyant with the boy genius’s love of language. Together, their paint a stunning portrait of human frailty and mental mania." (review excerpt by Bill Gibron)
