Download Hindi Movie Heart Attack! The Early Pulse Pounding Cinema Of Kelly Hughes
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Your new documentary Heart Attack! The Early Pulse Pounding Cinema of Kelly Hughes - well, the title makes it pretty obvious what it's about, so what can you tell us about your "early pulse pounding" movies? In 1991 I started writing and directing a weekly TV show in Seattle called Heart Attack Theatre. I made thirty-three episodes. And this led to me making the worlds first zombie drag queen movie, La Cage aux Zombies. And then Twin Cheeks, an experimental art film that borrows imagery from David Lynchs Twin Peaks, perverting what was already disturbing material. This early work also includes a TV pilot about a self-destructive interior decorator with multiple addictions called The Bicci Show. What got you into making movies even, and how did Heart Attack Theatre come into being? I wrote and directed my first plays in elementary school. And even back then made guys play the female parts in drag. In the late 80s I graduated from broadcasting school. But really didnt do anything movie-oriented at first. My training there was mostly in radio announcing. And writing news and commercials. Although we did learn how to splice and edit reel-to-reel audio tape. And had access to some nice sound effects records on vinyl.
By around 1989 or so, I felt the need to do something creative. So I entered a playwrights festival. And wrote and directed a musical called Lucky Charm. It had a supernatural element involving a schoolhouse that burned down a hundred years before. And the ghosts of the dead children haunting the location. It had a few eerie effects. But the upbeat songs gave it more of an Annie feel.
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After that, I wrote an actual operetta (no dialogue, everything was sung.) This was after Phantom of the Opera first opened on Broadway. And gothic musicals were all the rage. So I wrote this musical called Paul Bunyan: An American Tragedy. And gave it a supernatural, religious fundamentalist twist. With Paul Bunyan being the target of a village preacher who considered this large, lust-inducing man an abomination in the eyes of God, and a threat to their community.
After that I started making a movie called Trish Must Kill. It was about the daughter of an archeologist. And when he digs up an ancient necklace, he awakens an evil spirit that possesses his daughter, making her kill. And her name was Trish.
During this time I was teaching a drama class one night a week through the YMCA. And had written a play for my students to perform called Flat Tire. And performing it was basically their final exam. One of my students, Mary, couldnt remember her lines. And spent most of the first night of class on the verge of a manic episode, threatening to leave, diverting all my energy into persuading her to stay. But instead of inviting my more accomplished students, I only asked Mary to be part of Trish Must Kill. Perhaps I enjoyed the irony of casting her as the psychiatrist?
I shot it all on a cheap home video camera. And other than Mary, all of the other actors were my friends. And I made the story up as we went along. Which is the last time I did that because all my projects are scripted. And even though some of my stuff looks spontaneous, there is no improvising in my projects. Thats not the way I work. Ive learned to be more flexible. But I dont think its fair to actors to expect them to write your script for you. Or for them to wait around on set while youre still writing. And I like my words spoken the way I write them. Even changing the order of a few words can change the effect Im going for. So I dont allow my actors to do that.
Then, in September of 1990, I traveled across the USA, videotaping a cyclist from Seattle to New York for a documentary. This gave me access to a new and better camcorder and video deck. Panasonic Super-VHS equipment. It seemed like Hi-Def compared to what Id been using. But still primitive by todays standards.
A few months after the trip, I learned about Public Access TV. Which was this cable channel that let you air your own show. For free, even. Because the government made them. Which seemed like a big deal to me. Because this was way before YouTube. And I thought only Hollywood produced material could get on TV. So I signed up for a show, not really knowing what it was going to be about. I thought of the name Heart Attack Theatre while riding the bus on the way to the station. And then created a show that would live up to that name. Something lurid, trashy, fun, and maybe even artistic.
I was a last minute replacement for a show that backed out. Which only gave me a week to create my first episode. It was a half-hour show. Which is actually a lot of time to fill. So that first episode pretty much set the schedule I used for that first season. I would write the script on my lunch hour on Friday (I worked full-time at another job while I did this.) Shoot the scenes over the weekend. Edit Sunday night, and Monday and Tuesday when I got home from work. Turn it into the studio Wednesday. And then they would air it that Friday night. And I would already be starting the whole process all over again. Making a new episode every week with no room for delays. I had to create something whether or not I felt inspired. Or else I would lose my valuable time slot at 10:00PM on Friday nights. Failure and excuses were not an option. And I did it without a crew. I operated the camera. And hoped that the built-in microphone would capture everyones voice without too much background noise. What can you tell us about audience reactions to Heart Attack Theatre back in the day? I had no idea if anyone actually watched it. Public access had no Nielsen ratings. At the time, I didnt even have cable TV myself. So I usually didnt even watch it when it aired.
But after the first two seasons, I held an event at a local media arts center. It was one of the few places in town that had a video projector. And I screened a retrospective of my Heart Attack Theatre work. And afterward, this guy in the audience introduced himself. He said he was a fan. And that he taped each weeks episode. I was flattered. But also worried thinking, Is this some nut? But he turned out to be Steven Shaviro, the Film Studies professor at the University of Washington. And he had written a book called The Cinematic Body (which the next day I bought and read). And in the book, he studied Warhol, Fassbinder, Cronenberg and George Romero from a scholarly perspective. And I thought, I dont know if anyone else likes what I do. But if I could choose only one fan, none would be as flattering as this guy. And I was excited that an academic could look past the campy low-budget trappings of Heart Attack Theatre. And appreciate some of the deeper effects I was going for. To understand my references.
What was a Heart Attack Theatre-shoot usually like? Most of my shoots were in and around my apartment. I had a large living room, and minimal furniture. So I was constantly moving things around to make it look like a different location from every angle. And we would shoot in the boiler room in the basement. And on the roof. Which Im surprised (and grateful) no one fell off of.
But I especially liked shooting outdoors. Or in public venues. And we would just show up at places and start shooting. Stores, fast food restaurants, libraries, churches. And wed get everything in one take. Then leave before people noticed us. Or called security. The only trouble we ever had was at a public playground where some power-hungry office worker told us we couldnt shoot there without permission. And we actually stopped and listened to this guy for fifteen minutes. Ranting about how someone had driven a motorcycle into their hallway without permission after they agreed to let a film crew shoot a biker movie at their school. And this guy equated our shoot (me, two actors, and a camcorder) with this big wild biker movie production. But deep down I knew he was just jealous that we were doing something cool.
One weird thing about our shoots was that people would always be leaving crap in my apartment. Female actors especially would leave clothing, makeup, hairspray, brushesyou name it. So one day, I put all this crap on the floor next to my front door. And every time someone would visit, I would make them take items home when they left. I mean, there were four curling irons. Not just one, but four. And I dont remember the women curling their hair that often. I still dont know where they all came from. Props, clothing, a toilet even. Although the toilet was from another play I started working on. A women-in-prison story called Fever. But I still cant remember who brought the toilet, or why it was in my living room. Many of the actors in these movies were pretty much regulars - so how did you go about recruiting your cast?
I put a casting notice in the local paper. And auditioned people in my apartment. Which sounds like something a pornographer would do. So I bent over backwards to make people feel comfortable. Thank goodness the toilet wasnt in my living room then. I also used a couple actors who had been in my stage plays. And my friend Cathy who had played Trish (and went on to star in La Cage aux Zombies.) But for the most part, they were all strangers at first.
I used to joke that getting cast was easy. And that their first Heart Attack Theatre episode was the actual audition. And that if I liked them, I would ask them back to do a second episode.
One of the first people I auditioned was a middle-aged woman named Betty. At the time she was selling real estate. Didnt have a lot of acting experience. But I liked her personality, so I cast her. On the first day of shooting, I had her fall off a boat into deep water. Then learned she couldnt swim, and she almost drowned. But I loved that she would risk her life to be on TV. So I kept casting her. And started writing roles just for her. Even made her the ingnue at times, pairing her with male love interests half her age. And after Heart Attack Theatre, she played roles in most of my other video and stage work, including Fever. What inspired you to make a documentary about your Heart Attack Theatre-days roughly two decades later? I got the idea after I started to digitize old episodes and put them on YouTube. And realized that, for this current generation, they would take for granted what we did. I wanted to make a time capsule. To represent a specific place in time. To show that in the early 90s, before everyone had streaming videos, and the ability to become a YouTube star, that public access allowed us to create unique programming. But that we had to jump through a few more hoops. And make the most of our local audience and circumstances. Make the most of our primitive equipment.
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