The New Poverty Row: Independent Filmmakers As Distributors

by Fred Olen Ray

Since cinema's earliest beginnings, there has been friction between producers and directors. Shady accounting practices, which favored the distributors at the expense of the filmmakers, were all too common, causing many filmmakers to form independent companies to make and distribute their own product. This book examines six such low-budget exploitation companies-Associated Distributors Productions, Filmgroup, Hemisphere Pictures, American General Pictures, Independent-International Pictures, Dimension Pictures, and the author's own American-Independent Productions. A brief history of each company, laced with quotes from the company's principals, is presented, followed by a filmography that lists all known credits for that company.

Genres: Film

240 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1991

Reviews

[Chris Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

In major need of a revised edition, as the text was written in 1991. FOR goes into great background on his chosen distributors, illuminating a number of behind the scenes situations that make a more compelling case for seeking out these flawed gems.

[Toxic Graveyard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Among cinephiles with a large love of cheese, Fred Olen Ray is a revered name. He has made dozens of super cheap, super fun flicks over his long career and makes no bones about it. He knows what his films are and wants us to enjoy them to the hilt. Films like Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, Bad Girls From Mars, Scalps, Evil Toons, etc. He's still cranking out cheese even today. I recently discovered that in the early 90's he wrote a book. I knew I had to read it.

The New Poverty Row is about independent film makers who became independent distributors in the the 50's, 60's, and 70's. Each chapter covers a specific person or company and we get a full history lesson about them. We learn about their humble beginnings and how they tried to put their mark on film distribution whether it was super cheap jack productions that insulted their audience or super cheap jack productions that tried to entertain their audience. Roger Corman, Jerry Warren, and the man himself Fred Olen Ray are represented here among others. Ray's research was deep and personal and a treasure trove of information and funny anecdotes fill this book. The overall tone of the book is what you might expect from Fred: Intelligent but very funny. He makes no mistake about the overall quality of the films these guys distributed and pokes fun at them constantly. It's this jovial tone that makes what could be a dry and dull book into a pleasure to read.

It seems that this is the only book written by Ray and that's a shame. It's a fun read. I'd love to read an autobiography from him someday. I'm sure after making 139 movies (!) he has enough outrageous stories to fill several books.

The New Poverty Row isn't a sexy subject but Ray does his best to spice it up and because of it, it's an enjoyable read for those interested in independent distribution or Ray himself.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fred Olen Ray proves to be a particularly smart and adept critic/historian of the poverty row film studios of the past. He also is a leader in the "new poverty row", those film-makers/distributors whose work is created for less than a million dollars. The book is very interesting, and Mr. Ray has a great style to his writing. Makes me want to watch Journey to the Center of Time.