An Interview with Rusty Nails

Rusty Nails is a writer, director, actor, and producer who has directed the New Eye Films (www.neweyefilms.com) feature Acne and a number of short films. We had a chance to meet Rusty when he was touring the film festival circuit in 2005, promoting Acne and his pet project: the Movieside Film Festival (www.movieside.com). FilmGuru.Net recently caught up with Rusty, who is filming a new documentary on horror film legend George Romero.

1. What project are you working on right now?

We are still working on DEAD ON: The life and cinema of George A. Romero which is a documentary about the life (to date) and films (to date) of George Romero.  We currently have interviews with everyone from Stephen King, Glenn Danzig, Dario Argento, Tom Savini, Kevin Smith, Roger Ebert, John Landis, Richard Linklater, Dennis Hopper, Ed Harris, Penn from Penn & Teller, Quentin Tarantino and many others. If people are interested in finding out more about that film they can check out georgeromerodoc.com. 

2. What led you to do this particular film?

I have been a fan of George Romero's work since I first saw Night of the Living Dead on television when I was 11.  The film struck a chord deep inside in mind and left an indellible impression.  George's films have many of the same aspects I am interested in including in my own work:  Political concepts, well written roles for women and minority characters, new creative landscapes... etc..  I love Martin and The Crazies and of course Dawn of the Dead. It's tragic how much studio interfierence George had to deal with on films like Monkey Shines, The Dark Half and Land of the Dead.

3. Speaking of horror movies, what scares you?

The lack of caring or understanding a lot of people have for the planet and the various lifeforms that exist on the planet.  Human beings live in a beautiful world and many of us do our best everyday to crush, kill and destroy every animal, every resource, and every natural element that exists.  Most of us don't think about recycling or what happens to the things that we throw in the garbage.  America is based on convenience and in many cases, convenience is more important to us than taking care of the world.  We don't need ten plastic bags for our groceries every time we go to the store.  We should all bring cloth bags that we can use over and over again.  Human beings don't need to eat meat.  Eating meat wastes ten times more of the world's resources than being a vegetarian.  We believe we are the smartest and most important species in the world but with 100 years of industrialism in America we have gone on to polute most of the planet and have taught others to do the same.  What scares me is how little we know or care about the world in general.

4. Having seen Acne and The Ramones and I, music really seems to influence your work.  Did you want to be a rock star at some point?

I have played in a number of bands and will continue to do so.  I never wanted to be a rock star.
I do like performing for people... getting up on stage and exerting as much energy as possible to show people how much you appreciate them. I love playing punk rock and I probably always will.  I have plans to release something in the near future.

5.  What is your life like?  Do you travel a lot?  Are you ever at home?

At the moment I am travelling quite a bit.  Showing films at film festivals and shooting interviews for the George Romero documentary. We have travelled from Chicago to Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Ohio, Canada, Italy and a few more to come soon.  I spend a lot of time doing the business aspects of filmmaking -- setting up shoots, talking with my editors, finding the right camerapeople, sending films out to film festivals, reviewers, my distributors (www.gokartfilms.com, www.microcinema.com). In general, I spend a lot of time on the non-creative side of filmmaking, and I can't wait 'til I never have to deal with any of that.  But who else is going to do it at the moment?  I can't wait to pay people to take care of all of the business matters of my work. At the moment, I have to scrape money together, like most of my friends, to pay rent and bills.

6. What is your dream project?

I have many of those.  I know the question refers to the big one but I want to do so many different kinds of films and most of them have pretty reasonable budgets.  There is a sci-fi western that I would love to do.  At the moment, I'm concentrating on finishing my new script, Teenagers from Mars.

7. What is your favorite movie of all time?

My favorite movie is Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard.  The movie is endlessly energetic and in love with cinema.  Breathless is truly the crown in the jewel of French New Wave cinema. Some of Godard's other pieces include Masculine and Feminine, A Band Apart and Weekend. Breathless was written by Francois Truffaut, an incredible director on his own; Truffaut directed 400 Blows, Jules et Jim, Shoot the Piano Player, Farenheit 451, Day for Night and many other exceptional films.

8. What do you feel is your most important work to date?

I personally care for everything I've released so far.  If a movie doesn't matter to me, I won't let people see it.  I like every piece for different reasons and some of them for the same reasons.  I try to do something I've never done before with every new piece.  Every film has a hundred different challenges for me.

9. If you weren't in the entertainment business, what would you do for a living?

Working on an organic farm.  I have a lot of respect for people who care enough about food and the world to try to make good healthy vegetables and fruits for people to eat.  Farming isn't an easy job and the government and big business are all about cutting corners to get the biggest product and largest cash yield regaurdless of the condition of the produce.

10.  Who (or what) has been the biggest influence on your career?

I am influenced by thousands of people including everyone from Frida Kahlo, Dorothy Parker, Ghandhi, Richard Pryor, Mr. Show (David Cross & Bob Odenkirk), The Dead Kennedys, Erase Errata, Salvador Dali, Frank Tashlin, J. D. Salinger, S. E. Hinton, Albert Camus, James Joyce, Philip K. Dick, Public Enemy, Motorhead, Monty Python, Ralph Nadar, Abbie Hoffman, Jim Jarmusch, Raymond Chandler, etc... I am most influenced by going out and having amazing times with my friends -- bowling, skateboarding, rollerskating, finding trampolines in someone's backyard, sneaking into hot tubs in hotels, sneaking into movies, swimming, looking at the structure of buildings -- every and anything.