TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Country: United States of America
Language: English
Year: 2011
Running Time: 86 min
SYNOPSIS
Blue jeans, sock-hops and drive-in movies: the Fifties were America’s “age of innocence.” But stalking the depths of its post-nuclear bliss, mass paranoia became fuel for Joseph McCarthy’s brand of “Red Scare” terror propaganda. Bomb shelters were a deluxe feature in every American home, government-sponsored educational reels promised an imminent nuclear threat from across the Atlantic, and Hollywood, Babylon of the western world, hung on the brink of collapse.

It was here, in the last-ditch machinations of a dying juggernaut, that a mild-mannered, civil engineer’s son would become the most influential force in modern movie making. CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL tracks the triumphant rise of Hollywood’s most prolific writer-director producer, the true “godfather” of independent filmmaking.

Over the next six decades, Corman would self-finance hundreds of profitable, low-budget pictures and launch the careers of Hollywood’s biggest talents including Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and James Cameron. But by the late 70’s Corman’s world of exploitation would collapse when the giant studio system beat him at his own game.  With more money and more power the studios recruited Corman’s roster of directors and began making bigger budgeted exploitation films.  The giants “out-cormaned Corman”, and banished him forever to the land of straight to video schlock.

Corman’s World takes us back to the days when Corman was King and a catalyst for the youth movement across the country in the 50’s and 60’s by featuring archival footage of American culture and countercultures from the 1950’s to present day along with dynamic interviews with alumni of Corman’s cutthroat school of filmmaking.

The film also shows the rise of the Corman renaissance with interviews with Indiewood’s new school of filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino, Paul W.S. Anderson and Eli Roth; and reality-based footage following Corman, present day, as he continues to successfully produce and distribute films outside the studio system: fast, cheap and out-of-this-world! 
CREDITS
Director Alex Stapleton
Editor Philip Owens
Editor Victor Livingston
Producer Alex Stapleton
Producer Izabela Frank
Producer Jeffrey Frey
Producer Mickey Barold
Producer Stone Douglass
Production Company Far Hills Pictures
Executive Producer Molly Thompson
Executive Producer Robert DiBitetto
Executive Producer Robert Sharenow
Associate Producer Gregory Locklear
Associate Producer Leigh Stephenson
Associate Producer Maggie Janes
Director of Photography Patrick Simpson
Original Music AIR
Music Supervisor Margaret Yen
Art Director Ben Hurand
Sound Design Ryan Stuit
CAST
Roger Corman
Jack Nicholson
Jonathan Demme
Martin Scorsese
Paul W. S. Anderson
Peter Fonda
Quentin Tarantino
Robert de Niro
Ron Howard
ADDITIONAL INFO
Cannes Classics 2011, featuring Robert de Niro, Jack Nicholson, Jonathan Demme, Martin Scorsese and many others
 
Alex Stapleton  | director
CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL is Alex Stapleton’s feature length directorial debut.  After interviewing Roger for an arts magazine back in 2006, she was determined to make a documentary about him that would illuminate his prolific contributions to the world of cinema.  Making the film has been a film school education like no other.  She now feels like an honorary graduate of the Roger Corman school of filmmaking that has also churned out many of her film heroes such as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, John Sayles and Jonathan Demme.  CORMAN’S WORLD received its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011.

As a devout cinephile, Stapleton is a contributing film columnist for various publications such as Flaunt, Tokion and The New Cinema.  She also recently hosted a film Television series, The American Revolutionaries, on The Ovation Network. Stapleton also produced Just For Kicks (Canal Plus/MTV Networks), a documentary on the urban sneaker culture, that premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival in 2004. 
Filmography
2011 CORMAN'S WORLD
 
TRAILERS
 
 
PUBLICITY & REVIEWS
New York Times
19-May-2011
Author: Joan Dupont
“Ms. Stapleton’s funny and touching film traces the entire Corman adventure, which started in 1954, punctuated by interviews with Mr. Corman’s old cohorts, including Jack Nicholson, Ron Howard, Jonathan Demme, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino. Everybody, it seems, has come out of the Corman School of quickie moviemaking.”


Huffington Post
19-May-2011
Author: Karin Badt
“A new (very entertaining) documentary on Corman, Alex Stapleton's Corman's World, tells us, through interviews with Nicholson, De Niro, Scorsese et al, how Corman achieved his success: through resourcefulness and creativity.”


Sight on Sound
19-May-2011
Author: Ed Lucatero
“a delightful film that is akin to spending a couple of hours with a good friend.”


Variety
26-Jan-2011
Author: Dennis Harvey
“A delightful tribute…painting the soft-spoken Roger Corman as an indie cinema trailblazer…the starry roster of talents interviewed that owe their start to him adds marquee appeal.”


The Hollywood Reporter
25-Jan-2011
Author: John DeFore
“An affectionate tribute to the not-quite-obscure Roger Corman…a lively primer for any film buff unconvinced of the low-budgeteer's lasting footprint on the American film biz.”


New York Times
15-Dec-2011
Author: A.O. Scott
"affectionate and informative documentary"
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