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Posted: 10/7/2011
Trailer for the documentary Machete Maidens Unleashed.
Machete Maidens Unleashed! is the first detailed examination and celebration of Filipino genre filmmaking - a world where stunt men came cheap, plot was obsolete and the make-up guy was packin' heat!
From the early '70s well into the '90s the Philippines was a back-lot for a bevy of renegade B-movie makers and cinema visionaries alike. The country was utilized for its inexpensive labour, exotic locations and distinct lack of rules. A tidal schlock-wave of genre work emerged that somehow managed to capture the raw, chaotic energy of contemporary Filipino culture. These productions (a cavalcade of monster movies, jungle prison movies, blaxploitation and kung fu hybrids) were miraculously made at a time when the country's political situation was repressive at best. But, this was a revolution that even the Marcos dictatorship couldn't crush!
Machete Maidens Unleashed! begins with the partnership of acclaimed local filmmakers Gerry de Leon and Eddie Romero whose gore-drenched BLOOD ISLAND trilogy went straight from jungles of the Pacific to the trash cans of the critics, but in the process found large and enthusiastic drive-in audiences across America.
When legendary maverick producer Roger Corman was introduced to Romero and de Leon he instantly discovered the Philippines was economically suited to low budget filming. Corman quickly set up camp and produced a number of highly successful 'Woman In Prison' films starring genre favorites Pam Grier and Sid Haig.
Throughout the '70s and '80s the appetites of thrill-hungry cinemagoers around the globe continued to be satisfied by prolific local auteurs Cirio H. Santiago (TNT JACKSON) and Bobby A. Suarez (CLEOPATRA WONG) - and in the late 1970's Francis Ford Coppola re-invigorated a whole new epoch of filmmaking by choosing to shoot the infamously troubled production, APOCALYPSE NOW in the Philippines.
Our journey climaxes