Dirty little secrets
By Daily Bruin Staff
May 29, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 Protagonist Productions Ray Greene
(left), a friend and Wade Major present "SCHLOCK!
The Secret History of American Movies," a documentary about the
history of sexploitation films.
By Janet Nakano
Daily Bruin Contributor
There was a time when films explored more outrageous and
frightening subject matter than the blockbuster movies of
today do ““ like nudes on the moon and and disembodied
brains that refuse to die.
“SCHLOCK! The Secret History of American Movies”
exposes the history behind daring independent exploitation and
sexploitation films that contributed to today’s lax
filmmaking standards. The documentary shows tonight at the James
Bridges Theater.
The editor of Boxoffice magazine, writer/director Ray Greene,
fell upon thousands of relatively unknown films with wild plots and
racy titles, inspiring the creation of his documentary.
“I said, “˜My god, where did these come from? Where
did these go? What was the audience for these films?'”
Greene said. “And that was what launched the idea as much as
anything.”
The documentary includes interviews and rare film clips that
detail the history of exploitation and sexploitation films and show
how the provocative B-films of yesterday gave rise to the big
screen adrenaline-powered blockbusters of today.
Although such exploitation films were not a part of mainstream
culture and often were of low quality, there was an intriguing
quality about them.
Greene pointed to Doris Wishman’s films, featured in the
documentary, as a perfect example.
 “Once you get past the technical ineptitude and the
lack of training, there’s a sort of strange, passionate
portrayal of one woman’s journey through a very dicey time
for women,” Greene said.
Coproducer Wade Major, a UCLA School of Theater, Film and
Television alumnus, got involved with Greene’s project while
writing for Boxoffice and was equally compelled to expose the raw
beauty of these films.
“These films had unintentional poetry,” Major said.
“These people set out to basically make a movie to make a
buck, but somewhere in their subconscious, something was driving
them that they may not have been aware of and the result was that
they created something poetic.”
These early films were easily categorized as exploitation films,
but current movie content sometimes makes it hard to distinguish
what should be considered exploitation. In the documentary, Greene
provides his idea of exploitation films by defining some of their
distinguishing characteristics.
“It’s even tougher to nail down the edge of that
question when they spend $150 million to make an
exploitation,” Greene said. “Basically, the saleable
elements take precedence over every other consideration, and you
foreground the things that will get people to get into the movie
theater, irrespective of quality, character and plot.”
What made these films extraordinary was that they reflected a
side of life that was not necessarily romanticized or picturesque.
Major said that this was often because these filmmakers were living
in the real world, as opposed to a glamorous, Hollywood life.
“They were more closely in touch with, I don’t want
to say ordinary life, but maybe with a certain real dynamic that
allowed them to deliver something that felt a lot more real, a lot
closer to what was really going on,” Major said.
Greene includes films such as “The Brain that
Wouldn’t Die” and “Nude on the Moon”
because they show a flip side to the mainstream movies of their
time.
“They were willing to talk about things that Hollywood
movies refused to talk about, so when you watch them, even if
they’re bad or worthless, they’re an index of other
attitudes that were around at that time,” Greene said.
He believes it was these types of attitudes that pushed forward
filmmaking.
“I was appalled at some of the stuff that I had to watch,
but these films did not allow you to sit there and have a neutral
response,” Greene said.
As opposed to painting an idealistic picture of human culture,
“SCHLOCK!” delves into its darker aspects, exploring
the scary, humorous and sexual.
“Movies today are supposed to make you a better person
rather than hold a mirror up to an area of life that you may not be
willing to confront,” Greene said. “I’m trying to
be a unified human being by seeing the parts of myself that are a
little bit ugly and embrace them and analyze them and examine
them.”
Instead of hiding behind what is thought to be acceptable or
safe, the creators of “SCHLOCK!” feel current culture
is striving to embrace all aspects of human character, although
there are huge obstacles to overcome.
“Family films and pornography are very often purchased by
the same people,” Major said. “We are a schizophrenic
culture.”
“SCHLOCK!” has the potential to appeal to more than
just film students and moviemakers; its content may interest anyone
who is curious about film and culture.
“These films don’t just represent the history of
movies,” Major said. “They represent, in a large
degree, the history of our culture.”
FILM: “SCHLOCK! The Secret History of
American Movies” shows at the James Bridges Theatre tonight
at 7:30 p.m. For information contact Ray Greene at (323)
414-1322.
