Homemade Hollywood: Fans Behind the Camera

Fan Films: Fun, free and totally illegal! Who would swing off a six-story building for a homemade Spider-Man movie? Why would newlyweds spend $20,000 on a Star Wars film from which they can never profit? How did three nobodies blow Steven Spielberg's mind with an Indiana Jones flick they made as teens in the Eighties? They're all part of the Fan Film revolution--an underground movement where backyard filmmakers are breaking the law to create unauthorized movies starring Batman, James Bond, Captain Kirk, Harry Potter and other classic characters. Regular people are making movies that the fans want to see--and which copyrights and common sense would never allow. Homemade Hollywood: Fans Behind The Camera traces the fan film movement from the 1920s, when con men made fake Little Rascals movies, to the internet video sensations of today. Crossing the divides from a pop culture history of truly outlaw cinema, to an exploration of Hollywood's changing attitude towards its audience, Homemade Hollywood uncovers the innovations and controversies surrounding these secret films and reveals how they're changing today's media. Get insights from the fan filmmakers themselves as well as Hugo Award-winning author Timothy Zahn, director Eli Roth (Hostel, Cabin Fever), punk rock icon Tommy Ramone, authors Henry Jenkins (Convergence Culture), Don Glut (The Empire Strikes Back), Andrea Richards (Girl Director) and others. A foreword from Chris Gore, founder of Film Threat and movie expert on G4TV's Attack of the Show, sets the tone.