From the "On The Scene" Archives:

by Eugene Hernandez

You may not know her name, but maybe you've heard of her films -- "Bad Girls Go To Hell," "A Night to Dismember," or "A Taste of Flesh." She is Doris Wishman, "The Queen of Exploitation Cinema." Now in her seventies, Wishman is still a working filmmaker -- her filmography extends to 1960 and her first film, "Hideout in the Sun."

Today, Wishman is in New York City to participate in a retrospective in her honor (her first) at the New York Underground Film Festival -- tonight, she will be a guest on the "Late Show with Conan O'Brien." With all of the hoopla surrounding her trip to the city where she grew up (she now lives in Florida), not to mention a biography that is in the works -- you'd think she'd be somewhat excited...that is not the case.

"I'm a little surprised that after all this time I suddenly was found," Wishman told indieWIRE. Of course, the timing couldn't be better. Like most underground and indie filmmakers, Wishman is finishing up one project and anxsiously trying to secure financing for her next. The current movie, working title "Dildo Heaven," is almost done, and then its on to "Each Time I Kill." Describing the script, Wishman speaks like a true indie, "its wild and its different, and its very exciting -- very provocative and very commercial."

"People like my work or they hate it," Wishman added, "of course most people hate it." She said, "All of my films... I made them all with love and care and tenderness -- of course you can look at one of my films and say its horrible, but I know that I did my best."

In town for the weekend tribute and her first trip to a film festival, Wishman admitted that she may actually sneak away to see "Titanic." "I haven't seen to many films," she explained, "I don't enjoy going to the movies because I am too critical -- I find to many errors and nobody wants to go to the movies with me. I really haven't gone to the movies in ages. I can't point to a movie that I liked."

Reflecting on a time in the 60's and 70's when the underground was, in her mind, a less definable place, Wishman explained, "We never used the word 'undergroud,' because we didn't feel that it was underground. The only difference between my film and a major company was that the budget was lower, the production value had to be lower, and there were no names -- but actually some of the stories were far better!"

[The New York Underground Film Festival runs through Sunday at the Anthology Film Archives. The Doris Wishman Retrospective takes place tonight and Sunday night with screenings of "Nude on the Moon," "Double Agent 73," "Bad Girls Go to Hell," and "Let Me Die a Woman." For more information, call the festival hotline at 212/592-0900 or visit the website at: www.nyuff.com]