The Phoenix area isn't only home for retired people living from social security check to social security check, but it has a sizable Heavy Metal community and a lot of 16-30 year olds, who are prime audiences for his brand of low-budget exploitation flicks. So it's not totally out of character for President and co-founder of Troma Entertainment, Lloyd Kaufman, to appear in the Valley of the Sun for a film festival. Just one more prime place to promote his brand of cinema.

Mild mannered and distinguished looking in a conservative gray suit, Kaufman could easily blend into Scottsdale's high roller social circles, but those genteel folk would soon be aghast if they ever heard the man speak—let alone ever see one of his signature Troma flicks complete with fart jokes, defecation humor, enormous bare boobs, and gallons of blood to add color to severed heads and limbs. He makes John Waters look like the patron saint of the religious right!

Kaufman's been making this “independent art” now for thirty years and he promises to keep his record of never having a hit movie intact for as long as he's the president of Troma. That record may be in some jeopardy with his upcoming film Poultrygeist, which essentially takes the plot of Spielberg's Armistad and applies it to KFC with zombie chickens returning to seek vengeance. Expect more severed body parts, squished heads, big boobs, and lots of blood and gore!

Born in 1945, Kaufman hadn't planned on going into the movie business when he first enrolled at Yale University, but he got the bug along with friend and Troma co-founder Michael Hertz while there. His favorites included Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and John Ford, but he holds a special kinship to Chaplin and his successful business savvy. Kaufman sees the key to conquering the studio system that destroys true independent cinema is to own your own negatives (like Chaplin) and to “be prepared to whore for your own art.” Thus, his little Troma company produces films on a shoestring budget (from $3,000 to $500,000), markets and distributes them.

The fact that Kaufman has stayed in business for thirty years stands as a testament to his business success. Other “independent” film companies have come and gone, and what you now see advertised as independent companies are often a subsidiary of one of the large conglomerates like Time-Warner. Times have changed from the 1980's when independent filmmakers could readily find thousands of theaters to screen their work. Today, very few screens are left open to that possibility; they are under contract to show only films from a select list of distributors. Kaufman expects to show Poultrygeist on 300 screens maximum. But there's a lot of other ways to make money with cult films, especially with the DVD market.

Undaunted, Kaufman continues to find ways to remain profitable. Ever the businessman, he continually seeks filmmakers, scripts, and projects that fit into the Troma style of low budget work that contains a “commercial element” that appeals to the prime age group of 16 year olds to 30 year olds. So forget about romantic comedies—instant duds with the Tromettes and Tromans of the universe. Bring on the blood and sex and defecation jokes!

A number of budding filmmakers have been inspired by Kaufman's enterprise—notably Peter Jackson, Kevin Smith, and Quentin Tarantino—and some have even done some of their first work with Troma, like Matt Stone and Trey Parker (of South Park fame). Internships are available and people can check the website for upcoming volunteer work or to be in an upcoming cast. Kaufman likes to refer to the spartan conditions that his cast members endure, as they “sleep on the floor, eat cheese sandwiches three times a day, and defecate in a paper bag.” He may not be kidding about that last part either, judging from the Citizen Toxie scene with the Diaper Gang holding the special education class hostage.

Lloyd Kaufman certainly isn't going to appeal to everyone, but he doesn't try and he doesn't care. Supremely confident and independent, Kaufman knows who his audience is and has never sold out to commercial film interests or had someone else create a Broadway play from his more mainstream films (I'm not even sure there ARE any films of that ilk in the Troma catalog). He obviously enjoys what he does, and his cult audiences do too, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Note: The International Horror Sci-Fi Film Festival came together when Phoenix based Phoenix International Film Festival founder Chris Lamont and comic book artist Brian Pulido collaborated on the idea. A long time action and horror buff, Pulido had dreamed of hosting a Horror Festival while Lamont had wanted to have a Science Fiction Festival. Realizing that both genres are usually under-represented at film festivals, they decided to combine the festival and discovered that no one else in North America has ever hosted such a festival; thus, the first of what they plan as an annual even took place in Tempe this past weekend.