Please visit: http://www.guerrillamonsterfilms.comIn 1993, 30 year old JMM (John Michael McCarthy) formed Big Broad Guerrilla Monster (the only indie film company in Memphis) & dedicated it to his ideas alone. JMM had drawn comics for 7 years, being published by Fantagraphics Books in Seattle. Though he had received some publicity (including a glow in the dark review from the Village Voice Literary Supplement) he felt he was not reaching enough people with his "regionalist unpopular culture". Highly premeditated in his approach, JMM got a feel for shooting film by serving as associate producer on two shot-on-video horror movies in Memphis. "I set up the locations, found the actors, & let everyone stay at my house." Gorotica and Gorewhore had sold-out shows in Memphis. Soon JMM planned his own projects with the help of credit cards. Armed with a script that he had originally planned to draw, JMM made Damselvis, Daughter of Helvis in 1993. The flick featured such characters as Rebelvis, Psychedelvis, and Evel Knielvis! An ongoing trademark to be established was nudity & a certain amount of violence. "Sex plus violence equals nature," says JMM, "and we have forgotten that we are permeated and controlled by this feminine force. Due to this analogy, my women characters always come out on top. Perhaps in similar fashion to Russ Meyer's movies. My movies are also intentional comedie, which most low-budget filmmakers are afraid to make." Big Broad welcomes back a simpler age when fans of adult-related themes in cinema were no so jaded. "We sell the sizzle, not the steak." With Teenage Tupelo, JMM deals with the story of his own conception in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1962. "My biological father is unknown to me, so in my story I've made him into an Elvis-inspired characer called Johnny Tu-Note. Basically, I'm saying Elvis is my father. " Teenage Tupelo makes my biological mother into the definitive heroine, though I've never met her. You might say this movie is a "semi-auto-bio-sexploitation-comedy-drama-musical." Therefore, JMM is the first to make a "Nudie-Cutie" starring his own mother. "I suppose the genesis of Teenage Tupelo belongs to history & synchronicity", JMM explains, "My bio-mother saw Elvis play at the '56 Tupelo Fair when she was barely a teenager. You can see her in the famous photo of Elvis singing & reaching out to the crowd of mostly young women. At the same show, the people who would adopt me years later are sitting in the backrow. Elvis is my devine arbiter of synchronicity. We shot exclusively in Tupelo & Memphis where HE walked." Impressed with JMM's previous outing with Damselvis, Sexploitation cinema pioneer David F. Friedman has loaned his name as associate producer to Teenage Tupelo. The premier underground video company Something Weird (who carry all of David F. Friedman's classic films) also carries Teenage Tupelo as their first new release.
