WORD
ON THE STREET
by Holiday Dmitri
The Booster - Wicker Park
April 3, 2002
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WORD
ON THE STREET |
After a weekend of debauchery, it's time once again to mix pen with paper, and come up with something interesting to say, or to say the least, someone interesting to write about. This past week I sat down with Rusty Nails, the hippie-haired, irreverent local filmmaker with a penchant for the bizarre. Think John Waters but less crude, Ed Wood but with better acting. A vegetarian for 15 years, this Columbia College film graduate has a real talent for staying extremely disciplined without looking as if he were. Nails hasn't drunk more than a drop of alcohol his entire life ("Alcohol just taste bad," he says), and has a knack for switching back and forth from his flamboyant homoerotic role-playing (that his friends know him for) to his sharp-witted, taking-care-of-business demeanor. And right now, it's an exciting time to be Rusty Nails, for his first feature-length film, "Acne," is being released on video and DVD in the next two months. Five years in the making, "Acne" is a black-and-white, '50s horror sci-fi B-movie about two teenagers-turned-giant zits. The plot trails on a government conspiracy: In a small town in New Jersey, teens are mutating into pus-spewing pizza faces by drinking highly-contagious drinking water laced with an experimental chemical conceived by Government, Corporate and Military forces. The only way for them to eat is to rub junk food directly onto their exposed noggins. "Acne" follows brother and sister pair Franny and Zooey on their search for truth in this dark journey through the subterranean back roads of America. Nails made this low-budget film with $14,000 -- money he got by dipping into his student loans, holding massive yard sales, saving money from his summer as a bag boy in Boston, hosting punk rock benefit shows and a donation from a Hare Krishna. "Basically for five years, I spent every single penny I had that wasn't going to my rent or food on my film," says Nails, who not only directed, but acted, wrote and edited the satirical scare spoof. In addition, he has a few other film projects on his plate. Nails, who generally works on fiction films, is directing his first political piece. "Highway Robbery" is a documentary on Tom Ditzler, a blind veteran cowboy, whose 17-acre farm in far west suburban Rockford, Ill. -- host to American Indian burial grounds and wetlands -- is being seized by Winnebago County. "I had a bit of reluctance because I didn't know what was happening," Nails said in an interview with New City regarding the Ditzler story. "I thought that there might be some kind of action against construction people. I didn't know if kids were going to be tying themselves together to trees. I was really reluctant to get into that whole scene, but I decided to go at the last minute. Once I got there, the story just drew me in immediately ... This was the first time I'd done anything documentary, and it was really, completely compelling." Nails co-directs -- along with Trevor Arnholt and Gym Jones -- the Undershorts Film Festival, the largest short film festival in the Midwest, runs "MovieSide," a monthly short film/band/performance series, and is currently working on three other film projects: a short film entitled "Jesus," "Blood Drinkers," a music video for the Goblins, and "Superbird," a music video for local band Evil Beaver. Inspired by the punk rockers like the Ramones and the Dead Kennedys, he also subscribes to the punk rock D.I.Y. ethic. "Punk rock changed my life," admits Nails. "Because in punk rock, you teach yourself to do things on your own when you want something done. I don't think I would have had much of a chance without it." Featured in film festivals across America, including Baltimore's MicroCineFest 2000, Philadelphia's Lost Film Festival and New York's International Independent Film Festival, Nails is indeed a man with an eye on the celluloid. "I've been lucky," he tells me. "I've been [making films] for long enough now, and with good people that I can do stuff for absolutely nothing." Side Note: This month's "MovieSide" will be on Saturday, April 13, 7 pm. at the A-Zone, 2129 N. Milwaukee Ave. Films and video from Rusty Nails, John Waters, David Lynch, The Cramps, The Damned, and many others. In addition, bands performing are Peralta Apartment, Fourth Rotor and Nails' own band, The Dutchess. All Ages. $6 cover. Postscript:
Rusty wanted me to mention that he is always looking for new films and
videos to showcase in future "MovieSide," as well as performers
to act in his film. So, if you are interested, you should contact him
at movieside@hotmail.com. |
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