A lot of people wouldn’t mind being Lloyd Kaufman. His Troma films have a worldwide cult following; his book Make Your Own Damn Movie: Secrets of a Renegade Director is one of the finest guides to guerilla filmmaking one could ask for; and he’s just been named chairman of the Independent Film and Television Alliance. Still, to hear him tell the story to our friends at PopMatters, Kaufman is one pissed-off movie mogul. Festivals won’t accept his films, movie theatres won’t screen them, and bloggers trash releases like Poultrygeist while championing mainstream studio fare that’s no less ridiculous in concept or execution, but feature twenty times the budget. In an intriguing interview from a man who’s been in the business as long as Spielberg or Scorsese, he makes a convincing case that he’s the Rodney Dangerfield of filmmaking. — Leonard Pierce
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