THE HECK WITH HOLLYWOOD!
30TH ANNIVERSARY ONLINE RE-RELEASE:
NOW AVAILABLE FOR RENT ($3.99)
OR PURCHASE ($7.99)
The Heck with Hollywood! follows the trials and tribulations of three scrappy, indie filmmakers as they struggle to finish and find distribution for their first features. Filmed in 1987 and released in 1991 to international acclaim, the documentary captures a pivotal moment in the history of the American independent film movement. It also remains a painfully funny reminder that when it comes to breaking in as a filmmaker, the more things change the more they stay the same.
“An irresistible salute to the persistence, ingenuity and talent of American independent filmmakers.”
- SEATTLE TIMES
"A nimble, amazingly comprehensive documentary."
- WASHINGTON POST
"Absolutely not to be missed by anyone interested in film!"
- THE OREGONIAN
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT:
"The Heck with Hollywood!" was my first film, which I began shooting in 1987 and finally finished 4 years later. Back then I wanted to be a fiction filmmaker, and create a body of classic works like my idols Welles, Bergman and Truffaut. The only problem was I had no idea how one actually managed to become a director. Movies were very expensive to make, and thus required a track record of success to raise the financing. But, but, but… how do you achieve that track record without having the money to make a film in the first place? It seemed like a classic Catch-22.
And so an idea struck me. I'd learn how to do it by making a documentary following the process of three first-time filmmakers. Their stories intersected at the Independent Feature Film Market where filmmakers came with their low budget features, often made on spec, to find a distributor. It seemed like the perfect intersection of the art and business of indie film. And if many of the movies at the market were hardly artful, the optimistic, bordering on delusional, can-do attitude of the filmmakers struck me as both hilarious and poignant. In my mind the story was as much about the American Dream as it was about making movies.
I had no clue what mammoth struggles these filmmakers would face, or that I would join them in that struggle. First time filmmaking is truly a matter of leaping before you look.
Neither the editor, Debbie Rosenberg, nor I had gone to film school or edited a film before, and we did it painstakingly on two interconnected vhs decks that had an alarming tendency to skip a frame or two at the edit points. And yet, looking back at it from a 30-year perspective, I wouldn't change anything. It's something of an historical artifact now, a remnant of a time when indie film was exploding with visionary talents like Spike Lee, Steven Soderbergh and, in the documentary universe, my personal inspiration Ross McElwee. But, for better or worse, it’s every bit as relevant today as it was 30 years ago.
I began making The Heck with Hollywood! wanting to be the next Orson Welles. I finished it wanting to be Doug Block, documentary filmmaker.
Full Reviews:
Director: Doug Block
Producer: Doug Block
Editor: Deborah Rosenberg