Brian Lonano and Blake Myers Selects

Brian Lonano and Blake Myers Selects

Brian Lonano and Blake Myers - co-directors of CONTENT: The Lo-Fi Man

“Yo Friends, It's Blake Myers the production designer of lots of Brian Lonano's films and now co-directing with him on "CONTENT: The Lo-Fi Man". It really kind of Arrow to let me select 10 films from their amazing library to share with you. Many of these films have shaped me as a filmmaker. They are great examples of how to push boundaries and expand the language of cinema. 

1. Running Time - Josh Becker pulls off an amazing on location real time action heist film with what appears to be no cuts. All shot on black and white 16mm film, truly an amazing indy feat. 

2. Dead or Alive - The greatest first five minutes of any film, and the greatest last five minutes of any film. Takeshi at his best. 

3. Gruesome Twosome - Mrs Pringle and her son Rodney need scalps for their wig shop.  Hershel Gordon Lewis's use of the new electric turkey carver is epic. The real star of the show is Napoleon. It's one of the most bonkers of HGL's films. 

4. 2000 Maniacs - My favorite HGL movie by far. It's his biggest film in the sense of the locations, the music and the kills. It also has a lot to say about the world and is genuinely creepy as hell. I feel as if it informed the films of Lynch and Korine. I could be wrong, but it feels like that.  

5. Brain Damage - It's amazing how much lore and history can be pulled out of a silly puppet. It is a testament to the genius of Hennelotter to make a film that feels larger in scope compared to the limited resources he had. Elmyr is god. 

6. Horror Express - One of the 24 films to bring together Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, but also adds Telly Sevalas! All that is enough, but it takes place on a train that has the missing link to humanity on the loose and causing havoc. This film has it all! 

7. Switchblade Sisters - The King of the B's shows he can make any kind of genre film. Jack Hill's action packed girl gang fight movie is a blast. 

8. Gamera: Guardian of the Universe - I saw this film at a special screening in 1996. While I grew up loving Godzilla as a kid, seeing this Gamera film as a young adult made me a Kaiju fan for life. The effects and style of this film are some of the best ever. 

9. American Guinea Pig: Song of Solomon - Exorcism films are usually not my thing, but that is because they are usually not as brutal and relentless as this film. Stephen Brio dosen't hold back on the torture and the gore. The transformation that Jessica Cameron goes through to become possessed is unreal.    

10. Children of the Corn - I just saw this for the first time and it's total 80's folk horror. It's surprising how great the kids are in this film. Good creepy fun”.

“Hi Everyone!  Brian Lonano here. Director of such short films as “Gwilliam”, “CROW HAND!!!”, “BFF Girls” and most recently “CONTENT: The Lo-Fi Man.”  ARROW has invited me again to make some selections from their extensive library.  I’ve chosen 10 films that I believe to be excellent examples of persistence of vision, wild unhinged storytelling and underdog outsider filmmaking.

1. Tetsuo: The Iron Man - THE lo-fi cyber punk masterpiece.  Directly inspired our film "CONTENT: The Lo-FI Man", Shinya Tsukamoto's  journey to make this film almost mirrored our own experience making "CONTENT." But he persevered and made a true classic. And we made our film too.

2. Lake of Dracula - Part of a trilogy of Japanese Dracula films.  This was the second film and it’s my favorite of the three.

3. Putney Swope - “You can’t eat an air conditioner.”

4. The Mighty Peking Man & 5. The Boxer’s Omen - Two fantastic Shaw Brothers films.  I love when they made supernatural and monster movies.  They’re always wild and fun to watch.
 
6. Who Killed Captain Alex? - Amazing DIY filmmaking and I am so excited for its upcoming sequel.
 
7. Lake Michigan Monster - Another great example of DIY filmmaking.  I love the handmade look and feel of this film. It’s very inspiring.  And look out for their next film “Hundreds of Beavers.”
 
8. Basket Case - An awesome time capsule of 42nd Street and 1980s NYC in all its gross glory. When I was living and working in NYC, I met Frank Henenlotter at my post production job and he was at the time working on a restoration of “Basket Case.” And to shamefully plug my own work, Elric Kane from Pure Cinema Podcast and Colors of the Dark podcasts once said after seeing “CROW HAND!!!” and “Gwilliam” that he felt confident in “anointing him heir to the great Frank Henenlotter.”
 
9. The Sleeper Must Awaken: Making Dune - Daniel Griffith makes incredibly researched documentaries and some become feature films like this one!  
 
10. Massacre Mafia Style - This movie has a speech in the middle where Duke Mitchell talks about an old Italian woman and it is wonderful”.

*not all films are available in all countries.

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Brian Lonano and Blake Myers Selects
  • Basket Case

    1982 • United States • Directed by Frank Henenlotter

    The feature debut of director Frank Henenlotter (Brain Damage, Frankenhooker), 1982's Basket Case is a riotous and blood-spattered "midnight movie" experience, now presented for the first time ever in 4K.

    Duane Bradley seems like a pretty ord...

  • Brian Lonano & Blake Myers Selects Intro

    Blake Myers the production designer of many of Brian Lonano's films and now co-directing with him on 'CONTENT: The Lo-Fi Man' and Brian Lonano, director of such short films as 'Gwilliam', 'CROW HAND!!!', 'BFF Girls' and most recently 'CONTENT: The Lo-Fi Man' introduce their personally picked ARRO...

  • Dead or Alive

    1999 • Japan • Directed by Takashi Miike

    Beginning with an explosive, six-minute montage of sex, drugs and violence, and ending with a phallus-headed battle robot taking flight, Takashi Miike's unforgettable Dead or Alive Trilogy features many of the director's most outrageous moments set alongs...

  • The Gruesome Twosome

    After dabbling in the unlikely world of children's entertainment with the likes of Jimmy, the Boy Wonder and The Magic Land of Mother Goose, in 1967 Godfather of Gore Herschell Gordon Lewis returned to genre he helped create with the delightfully depraved The Gruesome Twosome! The young women of ...

  • Two Thousand Maniacs

    1964 • United States • Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis

    The American Civil War may long be over, but the supernatural residents of small Southern town Pleasant Valley won't soon forget. When a group of Yankee tourists take a detour and wind up in the town - which has magically re-materialized ...

  • Brain Damage

    Meet Elmer. He’s your local, friendly parasite with the ability to induce euphoric hallucinations in his hosts. But these LSD-like trips come with a hefty price tag. When young Brian comes under Elmer’s addictive spell, it’s not long before he finds himself scouring the city streets in search of ...

  • Switchblade Sisters

    1977 · United States · Directed by Jack Hill

    THE WILDEST GIRL GANG THAT EVER BLASTED THE STREETS!

    From Jack Hill, legendary director of Spider Baby, Coffy, Foxy Brown, and The Swinging Cheerleaders comes another iconic cult classic, Switchblade Sisters!

    Lace (Robbie Lee), the leader of inner c...

  • Gamera: Guardian of the Universe

    Following a long absence from the big screen, Gamera made a triumphant return to form in time for his 30th anniversary, with upgraded special effects and a more serious tone. Now a guardian deity, Gamera tussles with a new incarnation of his old foe - the flying monster Gyaos - first in Fukuoka, ...

  • Children of the Corn

    1984 • United States • Directed by Fritz Kiersch

    A young couple travelling cross-country find themselves stranded in the small town of Gatlin, where they meet a mysterious religious cult of children. With no adults in sight the terror brews as the new arrivals find the secrets of the prospering ...

  • Tetsuo - The Iron Man

    A strange man known only as the "metal fetishist", who seems to have an insane compulsion to stick scrap metal into his body, is hit and possibly killed by a Japanese "salaryman", out for a drive with his girlfriend. The salaryman then notices that he is being slowly overtaken by some kind of dis...

  • Lake of Dracula

    Lake of Dracula begins with a young girl suffering a terrifying nightmare of a vampire with blazing golden eyes. Eighteen years later, the dream is revealed to be a hellish prophecy when a strange package containing an empty coffin mysteriously turns up at a nearby lake.

  • The Boxer's Omen (Cantonese version)

    1983 • Hong Kong • Directed by Kuei Chih-Hung

    After suffering an injury in the ring, embattled boxer Zhen Wei enlists the aid of his brother, Zhen Xiong, to avenge him and find the key to an omen which may release their family from an ancient curse. Black wizards, Taoist monks, rampaging monster...

  • Lake Michigan Monster

    All aboard! The combined spirits of H.P. Lovecraft, early Sam Raimi and Mystery Science Theater 3000 inhabit this action-packed tale of nautical derring-do and monster mayhem - winner of the Audience Award for Best International Feature at the 2019 Fantasia Film Festival. On the shores of Lake Mi...

  • Mighty Peking Man

    1977 • Hong Kong • Directed by Meng-Hua Ho

    When Hollywood announced a big-budget remake of King Kong, Shaw Brothers followed suit with perhaps the most unhinged giant monster movie ever made: Mighty Peking Man. Fresh off directing the smash hit Black Magic horror series for Shaw, director Ho Men...

  • The Sleeper Must Awaken: Making Dune

    2022 • United States • Directed by Daniel Griffith

    The brand new feature-length documentary ‘The Sleeper Must Awaken: Making Dune’ chronicles the creation of David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s beloved sci-fi epic which starred Kyle MacLachlan, Patrick Stewart, Sean Young, Virginia ...