Director Eric Zala – 1982-1989 USA 100 min – IndieFest 2005 program note:
IndieFest is delighted to host this extremely rare presentation of the semi legendary shot-for-shot re-creation of Raiders of the Lost Ark made by three 12 year-olds in Mississippi.
Eric Zala, Jayson Lamb and Chris Strompolos started shooting in 1982 – and didn’t have a clue what they were getting themselves into. Their production wrapped in 1989, and was shelved and forgotten until 2003 when Eli Roth (Cabin Fever) screened a bootleg copy in the middle of the night at Austin’s legendary Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. The rest is history.
Their ingenuity is astonishing: watch for the rolling boulder, a submarine, live snakes, the heart-thudding truck sequence, the melting face, the same copy of a 1936 Life magazine that was used in the original, and everywhere flames, flames and more flames. They did a few inventive substitutions: puppy for monkey, boat for plane – but they got a submarine! What makes it more amazing is that there was no reference copy of the original for the kids to watch. Eventually, they (mysteriously) obtained an audiotape of the film recorded in a theater and worked from that. I love these guys!
A feature film based on their childhood is now in production with Dan (Ghost World) Clowes penning the script, which resulted in Producer Scott Rudin buying the intellectual property rights to their childhood. How weird would that be? – Bruce Fletcher, SF IndieFest
ABOUT INDIEFEST Year Seven
DATES: Feb 3-15, 2005
Venues: Castro, Roxie, Women’s Building, Ego Park Gallery
Features: 35 Shorts: 58 Parties: 7 Bands: 3 Total Films: 93 Total Films To Date: 508.
With: Jeff Ross, Bruce Fletcher, Tod Booth, Alicia Perre-Dowd, Nina Ramos, Michelle Lee, Fay Dearborn, Catherine Fougere, Mike Skurko, Karen Larsen
Sponsors: Bay Guardian, Women’s Building, Adolph Gasser, Complex Corp, sfstation.com, Dolby, Rainbow Grocery, Lost Weekend Video, Monacco, Herring and Grey Design, KQED, KUSF, KALX, Pirate Cat Radio, 960AM The Quake, Phoenix Hotel, Hotel Bijou, Makers Mark, Sierra Nevada, Johnny Love Vodka
NOTES: First sell out of the Castro Theater, but 2/3 of the audience is too depressed to go to the after party at the Swedish Hall and Asia Argento stiffed us on a ticket from Rome. Program guide cover art wins a bunch of design awards. Lebowski party moved from a bowling alley to a gallery and becomes more of a party than a bowling night.
