Machete Maidens Unleashed!

• Director: Mark Hartley
• Writer: Mark Hartley
• Cast: Roger Corman, Joe Dante, John Landis, Sid Haig, Eddie Romero
• Theatrical Release Date:
• Criticwire: B+
• On The Web Film WebsiteIMDB Entry

Synopsis: Two years after schooling the Midnight Madness crowd with "Not Quite Hollywood," a dizzying doc on Australia’s genre cinema of the '70s and '80s, Mark Hartley returns with another ambitious assessment of all things ’sploitation. This time, we’re taken on a trip to examine the decade-spanning, B movie movement in the budget-friendly Philippines.

"Machete Maidens Unleashed!" begins in the early '70s, when the country’s low production costs and exotic locale encouraged many American filmmakers to shoot there. In a country with considerably narrower views on the subject of taste, dozens of monster movies, women-in-prison flicks and blaxploitation actioners were being churned out at an increasingly rapid rate, and familiar names like Roger Corman and Pam Grier were often along for the ride. This prolific output continued right through the decade and climaxed with Francis Ford Coppola’s seminal "Apocalypse Now," which left dozens of sets and props for lo-fi filmmakers to recycle for years to come.

In the early '80s, the country finally saw its own raunchy renaissance, with an international film festival, lucrative film market and distinct brand of filmmaking to call its own. At the center of this creatively fertile period was the James Bond send-up "For Y’ur Height Only," starring the somewhat legendary cult icon Weng Weng as a pint-sized secret agent.

In order to flesh out (pun absolutely intended) the country’s cinematic heyday, Hartley’s esoteric exposé features candid interviews with Corman, Joe Dante, John Landis, Eddie Romero and a slew of renowned filmmakers, actors and critics, all of whom provide revealing, often scandalous, anecdotes about this no-holds-barred era and region in movie making. So sit back and enjoy one of the most outlandish studies in film history ever told. You’re going to need a bigger video store. [Synopsis courtesy of Colin Geddes/Toronto International Film Festival]