Dear readers (and cheerleaders) of this essay, my name is Christos Mouroukis and after spending 3 years of my life in the television (doing anything as an assistant director, from commercials to shows, to O.B. van) and another 8 in filmmaking (that means writing, shooting, acting, editing and directing about 30 short films and now I’m about to wrap the shooting of my first feature film, “Costas The Barberian”), I decided to do a Bachelor degree on the film & TV directing strand.
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”
