American Grindhouse

‘Exploitation basically means there’s an element you can exploit.It’s a hook to get them into the theater.’— John Landis, from American GrindhouseThe feature-length documentary American Grindhouse explores the hidden history of the American Exploitation Film. The movie digs deep into this often overlooked category of U.S. cinema and unearths the shameless and occasionally shocking origins of this popular entertainment.Exploitation Cinema has left an indelible mark on American culture, and this informative and amusing documentary proves that its principles—and popularity—endure to this day.Starting at the turn of the 20th Century, Exploitation Cinema emerged from the tents of carnie sideshows, reared its ugly head in the first true Exploitation features like Traffic in Souls and Freaks, brushed shoulders with hard-boiled Film Noir in the ‘40s, came of age with the teen flicks of the‘50s, razzed Hollywood’s stodgy Production Code with innumerable ‘Nudie Cuties’ and ‘Roughies,’ rode high on the hog with the biker pix of the ‘60s and pimp-slapped some jive turkeys during the ‘Blaxploitation’ boom of the ‘70s. American Grindhouse takes a fascinating look at the films, filmmakers, hucksters and hustlers who made it all happen.Narrated by Academy Award-nominated actor Robert Forster, this documentary boasts exclusiveinterviews with filmmakers Herschell Gordon Lewis, Joe Dante, Larry Cohen, Jack Hill, Fred Williamson, John Landis and many, many more—many of them speaking out in their first-ever oncamera interviews. Bursting with clips and scenes from more than 200 of the most jaw-dropping movies ever screened, American Grindhouse is poised to be the most comprehensive motion picture ever made on the subject of Exploitation Cinema.So sit back, enjoy the show, use protection, don’t yell at the screen and—if you come back from thesnack bar alive—keep repeating to yourself: ‘It’s only a documentary… only a documentary… only a documentary…’