Congratulations to Francis, the innovative filmmaker behind the this year’s film sensation “I Need to Lose 10 Pounds”, for winning the Kodack Independent Spirit Award out of all the filmmakers from this year’s TromaDance film festival in Park City UT! This prize is given to filmmakers who, through their art and dedication to truly independent cinema, represent the philosophy behind the TromaDance Film Festival.

Burning Paradise Video, Albuquerque’s ONLY cult/alternative/trash video store, has once again teamed up with Troma Entertainment for “Burning Paradise Presents: TromaDance New Mexico!” The three day event is New Mexico’s premiere independent film festival and is scheduled for September 22-24 at the Guild Cinema in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Legendary filmmaker and cult film icon Lloyd Kaufman, President of Troma and the creator of the Toxic Avenger will attend the festivities. Films may be of any length, cover any subject matter, and can be shot on any format. Submission forms and guidelines may be found at BurningParadise.net, or for more information call 505-244-1161.

Troma Entertainment is the nation’s oldest independent film studio, and responsible for cult classics such as The Toxic Avenger, Cannibal The Musical, and The Class Of Nuke ‘Em High! Troma Entertainment founded TromaDance in the year 2000 as an alternative to the major studio garbage-fest of Sundance in Park City, Utah.

During his career, Lloyd Kaufman has worked on such classics as Rocky and Saturday Night Fever. During its 30 years of renegade film making, Troma films have featured actors such as Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Dinero, and Kevin Costner! Film making icons such as Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill), Peter Jackson (Brain Dead, Lord of the Rings Trilogy) and Takeshi Miike (Ichi the Killer) have all cited Lloyd Kaufman as being a major influence on their work. We are truly honored to have developed a strong working relationship with Lloyd Kaufman and Troma Entertainment, as they represent the truest form if independent art!

Burning Paradise Presents: TromaDance New Mexico! gives voice to truly independent LOCAL filmmakers who do not desire to jump on the Hollywood film production bandwagon which is taking place in New Mexico. “I’m sick of this paternalistic attitude held by the New Mexico Film Board that local talent needs to be “nurtured” and helped along like some sort of infant. We have the know-how and we have the talent, and this film festival has proven that.” Says Kurly Tlapoyawa, owner of Burning Paradise Video.

Contact: Kurly at 505-244-1161

Thank You,
Kurly
Burning Paradise

Burning Paradise Presents: TromaDance New Mexico - Coming To Albuquerque This October!

800 Central Ave. SW #A

Thanks, and see you in Utah.
-Kiel Walker

Among other things they asked me for (like giving oral sex to the chairman etc.) so I can get the important classes’ credits, they also wanted me to submit a documentary.
What a great opportunity! You know, this is the wonderful world of being a film student! Your good professors are the only people in this world that will ever ask you for a film!
The first thing that came on my mind (after my girlfriend’s breast) was that I can make a documentary on Troma! This is the film company whose movies like “The Toxic Avenger” or “Class of Nuke ‘Em High” I have grown up with! And they are the very reason that now I prefer men rather than women! But that’s another story!

Nah, I thought, let’s make it a little bit more interesting, egoistic and selfish! {I’ll make a documentary on “How I went in TromaFling and introduced my films”} was the idea! The great TromaFling independent film festival was about to screen 3 of my short films [“Agiopiisi”, “The Weekend Of Death”, “In The Mouth Of The Wolf” (which recently have been in screened in the amazing Tromanale film festival too!)] among masterpieces like “Bloodsucking Freaks” and “Parts Of The Family”!
Anyway, what we managed to end up with, is (a production book of more than 500 pages long and) a 36 minute long documentary that had been shot in 5 days, with actually no budget, that ended up containing all the things that are considered entertainment for the whole family! This means breath-taking action scenes, helicopters, car crashes, interviews with film directors & crew members, vampires, Tromatic parades, zombies and screenings of Tromatic classics like “Tromeo & Juliet” of course! Your kids will love it!

It starts with a ridiculous introduction by me, then you get the beginning’s credits with the wonderful sounds of burps and women moaning, and then, you’re in the beautiful Edinburgh of Scotland where you are suddenly swept inside the TromaFling independent film festival (for some screenings)!
Later you see the interviews with interesting people, some suggestions that Dario Argento’s “The Stendhal Syndrome” is a better Italian film than Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” and of course a great Tromatic parade with vampires!
More interviews come to your screen and then, another Tromatic parade that contains zombies and mind-blowing violence scenes!

Just before the end you can see the award ceremony, the closing celebration and the wrap of TromaFling, leaving all of us, the audience and the filmmakers with the hope that we will get there the next year, too. Because TromaFling independent film festival to my eyes was all about art that comes straight out of the fart, er, sorry I mean the heart.

Christos Mouroukis
Director of “Costas The Barberian”

Well, there were plenty of difficulties and stupidity. But I sold all of the DVD’s before the doors even opened! More movies next time, they would have flown.

One band arrived uninvited (they were supposed to play the after party for free) all of a sudden they were wanting money, I just gave them $50 out of my pocket and told them I’d NEVER promote them again. GRRR! On a lighter note, I DID score at least $200 bucks for Troma!!! The bands that I invited got a fair pay.

Besides some drama, the band that the bar owner brought in hogged up most of the time I had set aside for movies, and the door guy didn’t know the difference between charging $6 and $8 even with me constantly yelling "It’s $8 at the door, Do you have NO motivation in life!!!!"

People were wanting more DVD’s for sale. I gave them the web address, of course! I DID get to perform a nuclear meltdown on stage!! I dressed up as Toxie’s forgotten and bitter little sister, yup I had a lousy hand me down mop.YAY! They apparently carry no Bromo seltzer in the Crotch of the Bible Belt, but crushed up Alky seltzer worked pretty well! I will send pictures soon!!!

Go Yankees…..
Marta

"nothing that asks for your arguments is worth arguing, just as nothing that solicits your belief is worth believing."

Please contact Webmaster@Tromadance.com to submit YOUR photos!

We a pleased to announce that we will be holding our third annual film festival on May 12th and 13th at the Park Theatre Video and Movie Cafe, at 698 Osborne Street in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

The new deadline for submissions is March 31, 2006. Here is up to date application form for the festival. Remember there is NO SUBMISSION FEE. Hope to hear from all you soon.

Troma Center

The film festival experience gets really independent at TromaDance.

by Miranda Marquit

Filmmaker Frankie Frain shows obvious disillusionment. “Sundance has clearly stepped out of the independent realm,” he says. “These $15 million ‘independent’ films are impossible to compete with. When films like One Hour Photo and Eternal Sunshine [of the Spotless Mind] are entered into Sundance, the individuals—the independents unconnected to the studios—can’t get in.”

Frain’s film, I Need to Lose Ten Pounds, would probably not have been accepted into Sundance. But the 20-year-old’s feature length musical—about an overweight teenage boy who has tried everything (including ingesting condoms) to lose weight—is definitely original. And the world need not miss out on his artistry. Troma Entertainment’s alternative to Sundance, TromaDance, provides the ideal venue for filmmakers who consider themselves the true independents.

Lloyd Kaufman founded Troma Entertainment with Michael Herr, and 32 years later—after creating the Toxic Avenger franchise among other genre delights—it is the oldest continually operating independent film studio in the world. But Kaufman only got into the festival business about eight years ago when his friend Trey Parker (of South Park fame) tried to get his film Cannibal! the Musical into Sundance.

“He paid the entry fee and didn’t even get an ‘F-you letter,’” Kaufman says. “So he went to Park City and screened it out of the back of his car. It was a huge hit. The people were bored, the media was bored, with what Sundance had become. I knew I had to do something.”

In addition to enjoying its seventh year in Park City, this year Troma will invade the Toronto Festival, and enjoy its second year at the Berlin Film Festival. Edinburgh hosts TromaFling; there is a TromaDance New Mexico; and Tromapalooza, which takes place near Nashville.

This year’s TromaDance director, Kiel Walker, says that the widening popularity of Troma-based film festivals amounts to “an art movement, giving art back to the people.” Unlike many other film festivals, TromaDance does not charge a submission fee. Entrance and screening fees remain conspicuously absent. Anyone can submit, and hundreds do. While only 61 films were selected for showing this year, TromaDance also holds “secret screenings” of noncontest movies in the Troma condo.

Kiel points out, “It’s hard when you’re a struggling filmmaker. You’ve maxed out your credit cards and probably annoyed all your family and friends and went all over town trying to get funding. You want to show your movie, and all these ‘independent’ festivals are hitting you up for another $50, $60, $70 or more to get in.” And then, you probably won’t make the cut.

Sam Balcomb and Jesse Soff (both 26 years old and from Los Angeles) made the cut this year with their short film Texas Fortune. TromaDance movie selectors invited them to submit their 10-minute short about a drifter fighting the undead. Balcomb says, “We didn’t want to make just a zombie movie. We made something with a good set-up, a good payoff and a little bit of a twist.”

Troma volunteer and past TromaDance director Jonathon Lees came across Texas Fortune on DVXuser.com, where the short won an award. Like everyone else involved with TromaDance, Lees isn’t paid a dime. He makes his money as a freelance video editor and by acquiring greeting cards and animation for a cell-phone company. But he believes in TromaDance. “I spend literally months watching thousands of films outside of my day jobs,” Lees says. “We help people learn to promote their films and put them in the public eye.”

Hundreds of other people believe in TromaDance, too. They come to Park City each year to help with the festival and enjoy the festival’s free activities. And they come to support truly independent filmmakers by watching their movies.

“The whole point of making movies, other than having fun yourself, is to get them to an audience,” says Soff. “But you may not have a venue for it. TromaDance provides that venue.”