THE KIDS STAY IN THE PICTURE
|
JT Leroy: I really dug the movie. How did you decide to do this?
Adam Shell: We had this collection of movies that we’ve had for years, and they would constantly float around between us as we got older. One day Darren and I were talking about the logistics of preserving the tapes, and I said we should just cut them all together, shoot some interviews and put a little film together.
Darren Stein: There had never been a documentary about children filmmakers, kids who still are friends as adults.
Shell: Darren and I also agreed when we first started that if we’re going to do this, we can’t hold anything back–
Stein: – because Adam was nervous about the breast-feeding story.
Leroy: Did you really breast-feed until you were seven?
Shell: No, I breast-fed until I was three.
Stein: I still think he breast-fed until he was at least five. [laughs] But regardless of what happened, you could tell that he didn’t want the world to know that. And I was like, well, it’s honest. We thought you were a fucking freak because you were home sucking your mom’s tit!
Leroy: There are just so many moments I love. And the special effects were also great.
Stein: Thanks. I used to subscribe to Fangoria magazine, and every month there would be a new one in my mailbox with a severed head or something. I think I always knew that I was queer, or different, and so horror imagery and Fangoria was just a way to transcend everything natural. It was like, here are brains spilling out of a head, here’s death right on your doorstep, you know what I mean? I loved making homemade effects and stuff. In the zombie film, the ribs were my mom’s ribs that she had made the night before. I had all the recipes to mix peanut butter with Karo syrup and red food dye to get the right consistency for blood and guts.
Leroy: In the film, your mom is making these really involved, amazing dishes, nurturing and nourishing the family, and at the same time this other world is going on – the kids are on the roof!
Stein: Well, the thing is, we were on this street in the hills [of Encino, Calif.]. Our parents had careers and their own lives, and they trusted us because they knew we’d be at Mark’s house, Michael’s house, Alan’s house... But the parents didn’t know what I was doing. Not that I was doing anything bad. But I don’t know if Alan’s parents would have approved of me putting their kid in a leotard and having him seduce the baseball team.
VOD CALENDAR
See the VOD Calendar →
