By M. Faust

HOLLYWOOD ON A SHOESTRING No-budget filmmaker Mark Pirro may not be as well known as cult icons like Ray Dennis Steckler or Herschell Gordon Lewis, but he’s in that league, and his feature films over the past 40 years are certainly more entertaining than anything from Fred Olen Ray, Jim Wynorski or Troma. And if you don’t recognize any of those names, a sense of humor is all you need to enjoy this short documentary about the man who hasn’t looked back since he made A Polish Vampire in Burbank for $2500 in 1983. (Pirro likes to brag that his recent films, like The Deceased Won’t Desist, didn’t cost nearly that much.) “Hollywood in a Shoestring” will be screened Saturday, October 12 at 7:00PM at Buffalo Toronto Public Media. For more information click here.

FILM IS DEAD. LONG LIVE FILM! For decades, it was common practice in the movie industry to dispose of film prints once they had exhausted their commercial runs: no one guessed that they would have any appeal to future generations. Well, almost no one. This documentary looks at the collectors who lovingly acquired and cared for as many of those dumped prints as they could get their hands on, in many cases saving important work that would otherwise have been lost to history. Film Is Dead. Long Live Film! will be screened (Monday, October 14 at 4:30PM at Hallwalls. For more information click here.

MICRO BUDGET You’d be hard pressed to think of a character more clueless than Terry (Patrick Noth), who moves his way-pregnant wife from Iowa to Los Angeles so that he can fulfill his dream of making a low budget movie and selling it to a streaming service for big bucks. The cast he manages to put together for a disaster movie to be shot inside a rented house is about to find out that he is equally lacking in money, talent and taste in a comedy that could well become a cringe classic. Microbudget will be screened Sunday, October 13 at 4:15PM at the North Park Theater. For more information click here.