Crimson Celluloid: I guess the most obvious way to start this interview is to find out what you have been doing for the past few years? We haven’t seen much mention of you and, frankly, were concerned that you may have died.
Nick Zedd: You wish. Learn to use a computer. Look up my name on two websites & you can see my filmography up to now. Frankly, you’re being disingenuous and it’s not funny.
CC: What is the current state of play in regards to ultra-low budget filmmaking in your neck of the woods? Any promising new talents that you think we should be aware of?
NZ: Perhaps Mark Hejnar, Jacob Pander, Will Keenan, Jon Vomit, Saint Rev Jen, Andras Troeger, Steen Jorgensen, Bob, Nick Bohn, Mike Diana, Jaiko Suzuki, Gritt Uldall Jessen, Darly Free, Dr. Ducky, Doo Little and all the other people who’ve acted in my last six films which you probably haven’t seen.
CC: Some of your better known films, such as Police State, Geek Maggot Bingo and Bogus Man stay with the viewer long after the screening. Do you feel that a confronting experience is a necessary element in the Cinema of Transgression or is this merely a by-product of your naturally nihilistic point-of-view?
NZ: Beats me.
CC: I was worried when I saw the title of your new film that you may have gone mainstream and now making demented kid’s movies. Please reassure me that this isn’t so and what is the film about?
NZ: Elf Panties: The Movie is a G rated fetish film for lovers of elf panties. You have to see it to know what it’s about. Labels & categories are constraints that do not apply to me.
CC: You’re selling the film to a lazy film-going audience, why should they go see your new movie?
NZ: because it’s cheaper than buying it thru the mail and anytime I publicly exhibit a night of movies it’s an historical experience that cannot be compared to anything else. What makes film-going audiences any more lazy than anyone else?
CC: Please let s know who is in your current film and how long it took to shoot. Divulge budget costs if this isn’t a rude question. Any interesting experiences during shooting?
NZ: Saint Rev Jen is in the current film. It took a couple of hours to shoot. I never know what my budgets are just like I don’t need to remember what kind of camera I used. Ask the cameraman or somebody. I don’t care what name the editing system is either. What counts is the end product. During the shooting of Elf Panties Rev Jen’s panties got so wet she had to change them and we fucked on her bed in between takes. This made her acting more real. Rev Jen is pretty. Plus she has pointed ears.
CC: You’re in a parking lot on a hot day; Richard Kern is locked in one car, Bruce LaBruce in the other. Who would you give water to and why would the other miss out?.
NZ: Let me think. Do you reckon La Bruce would drink his own piss?
CC: Jealousy is an ugly emotion but one that I must admit being prone to in regards to one point of your existence. You slept with Lydia Lunch. Being that she is the sexiest woman on the planet and I can only share this experience vicariously, what was it like?
NZ: Never kiss and tell. Especially if you’re not getting paid.
CC: Does it frustrate you that when people review the films of people like David Lynch and John Waters (and Pecker was about the worse film I have ever seen) they use words like “alternative cinema” and “experimental” still? All this despite the fact that people like you are the real, in fact the only alternative?
NZ: Do they really? I don’t pay attention to the mainstream. Consensus reality is invalid.
CC: Richard Kern bemoaned the fact to me that New York audiences who saw his films were hardly supportive and had this holier-than-thou “I can do better” attitude. Is this still the face or have your and his films reached a wider acceptance?
NZ: I can’t tell. People from Europe tell me I’m famous. But where’s the money?
CC: Is is just as hard now as it ever was raising money to make your films?
NZ: Harder. It just keeps getting worse, but I’ll never give up.
CC: Totem of the Depraved is a remarkable book, any more books in the works?
NZ: No Guilt, another autobiographical atrocity that’s sure to blow away every other writer on the planet.
CC: Anyone reading the book would assume that you are some kind of nut-magnet, in that nearly everyone you seemed to encounter on a daily basis was apparently one step away from full-blown psychosis. Has this changed over recent years?
NZ: Nope.
CC: The various independent film festivals down here would be wise to invite you down here to screen films etc. What could a promoter expect from an engagement with Nick Zedd?
NZ: An evening of delirious excitement and revenue enhancing insanity designed to transform, transfigure and transmute. In other words, boffo at the box office.
CC: Is there any less threatening magazine in the world than Film Threat?
NZ: Guerilla Filmmaker and the NY Film Monitor.
CC: Can people order books and films through you? Address? Website?
NZ: PO Box 1589, NYC NY 10009 USA. http://nickzedd.com/
CC: Final words of wisdom for our readers?
NZ: Xenomorphosis.