This August, Spectacle is thrilled to celebrate the illustrious career of independent filmmaker and our foremost archivist of eccentric Americana, Jeff Krulik.
Krulik got his start behind the camera as a volunteer for a local public access station in 1983, before being hired as a channel coordinator (and later producer/director) for MetroVision Public Access serving the D.C.-adjacent region of Southern Maryland. There he honed his skills as a filmmaker and programmer, his work often focusing on the humorously offbeat side of D.C.-metro area culture, while always maintaining an open, enthusiastic, and appreciative point-of-view towards even the most bizarre programming or personalities that made it to air.
Krulik developed an underground following throughout the 80s & 90s as one of the co-directors— alongside fellow documentarian and public TV cohort, John Heyn— of the seminal 1986 documentary short, HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT. Set around a Judas Priest concert in suburban Maryland, the film has been hailed as one of the all-time great rock documentaries despite not featuring a moment of footage from the actual concert. Instead Krulik & Heyn turned their lenses on the arena parking lot, capturing the unbridled spirit and style of its tailgating fans, in turn becoming the definitive cultural touchstone for the 80s heavy metal scene.
Krulik left public access in the late-80s and moved into independent producing and filmmaking, his fascination with the fringes of pop culture now spreading well beyond the D.C.-metro area. Over the next few decades, Krulik would produce and direct dozens of films documenting the lives and work of folks from all over the country— Academy Award-winning actors and professional wrestlers, outsider artists and traveling sideshow managers, local librarians and pinball repairmen— each work marked by Krulik’s wry observational style that found the humor, passion, and authenticity in every one of his subjects.
Join us this month for a look back at Krulik’s vast career, with the man himself joining us in-person for Q&As on Saturday, 8/17 and Sunday, 8/18.
Program 1: Adventures in Public Access
Dir. Jeff Krulik, et al., 1984-1990
United States. 109 min.
In English.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 2 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 17 – 5 PM w/ Q&A (This event is $10)
TUESDAY, AUGUST 27 – 7:30 PM
Our first program dives into Krulik’s early years with Storer Public Access and MetroVision Public Access television where he developed his eye behind the camera, setting him down a five year career path that nearly resulted in a nervous breakdown. Much of his public access work was made with a skeleton crew of only two or three individuals, characterized as much by the DIY spirit of his later work despite the professional resources at his disposal.
Dir. Jeff Krulik, 1990
United States. 3 min.
In English.
A short compilation featuring some of the wilder moments, program hosts, and guests from Krulik’s tenure at MetroVision Public Access.
TWENTY-FIVE CENTS BEFORE NOON
Dir. Jeff Krulik, 1987
United States. 22 min.
In English.
A short documentary scrapbook about movie palaces and single-screen theaters in the Washington, D.C. area. According to Krulik, this was his most ambitious undertaking at the time the project was started in 1984, but due to his other obligations at the studio was not able to be completed until 1987. The short eventually aired on the D.C.-area PBS affiliate Weta well after MetroVision had shuttered.
COMIC BOOKS: A WORLD OF ILLUSTRATED ADVENTURE
Dir. Steve Canfield, 1984
United States. 19 min.
In English.
Krulik acted as camera operator, co-editor, and narrator of this documentary short made at the start of his public access years. Shot on location at Geppi’s comic world in Silver Spring, Maryland during a Stan Lee signing, and a comic convention in Northern Virginia, the film delves into the world of comic books and collector culture at the height of the medium’s resurgence in popularity among adults.
THE BUTCH WILLIS SHOW
Dir. Jeff Krulik, 1989
United States. 18 min.
In English.
For most of his public access years, Krulik moonlighted as manager, patron, and “true believer” for D.C.-based indie rock band, Butch Willis & The Rocks. Willis and his band had been a fixture of MetroVision public access in Krulik’s crusade to expose more people to their unique brand of outsider new wave and rockabilly. Krulik had ceased managing the band by 1989, but shortly afterwards crafted this compilation short of public access clips he’d produced featuring Willis.
Dir. Jeff Krulik, 1986
United States. 37 min.
In English.
In what might be his public TV opus, Krulik sits down with professional hypnotist Robert Attila Bellus and his wife & assistant, Stella, for an unhinged look at the world of suggestion. Much of the special is centered around Bellus’s “trancing” of Stella to make her believe he’s no longer in the room (he is), but due to FCC regulations prohibiting the broadcasting of acts of hypnotism, we don’t see the actual process and instead jump right to Stella in her “trance”, leading to some inadvertently hilarious sight gags and plenty of off-camera breaking. Bellus proceeds to wax philosophical about everything from space travel, to astral projecting into Lyndon Johnson, to Nikita Khrushchev’s and Rasputin’s own nefarious backgrounds in hypnotism.
SHOW US YOUR BELLY
Dir. Jeff Krulik, 1988
United States. 10 min.
In English.
On January 31st, 1988, the Washington Redskins defeated John Elway and the Denver Broncos in a decisive 42-10 Super Bowl XXII victory. That same evening, Krulik, John Heyn, and Seth Morris hit the streets with a camcorder and microphone for a series of absurd first-person interviews with drunken fans. The short is much more intentionally comedic than Krulik’s other public access work, with interviewer Morris mostly dropping non sequitur questions to confused revelers (including his trademark, “What’s your favorite fish?”) and imploring the film’s subjects to perform the titular ritual for camera.
Program 2: Vox Parking Lots
Dir. Jeff Krulik & John Heyn, 1986-2010
United States. 107 min.
In English.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 3 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 17 – 7:30 PM w/ Q&A (This event is $10)
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28 – 7:30 PM
Our second program features a collection of Jeff Krulik & John Heyn’s “man-on-the-street” style pieces that originated with HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT. Krulik & Heyn both came up in public access, giving them similar sensibilities behind the camera. Yet unlike your typical public access documentaries, their films contain very little exposition, adopting more of an observational presence that allows ample room for their subjects to— both literally and figuratively— speak for themselves.
Dir. Jeff Krulik & John Heyn, 1986
United States. 17 min.
In English.
In 1986, Krulik & Heyn took a camcorder and microphone to the Capital Centre parking lot in Landover, Maryland in the hours leading up to a Judas Priest concert. Their intention was not to make a traditional concert doc, but to capture the character and passion of the much-maligned youth culture surrounding heavy metal. The film demonstrated that, contrary to the “Satanic panic” media bluster of the 1980s, metalheads were not in fact murderous psychopaths and occultists intent on the destruction of Good Christian Values, and instead were mostly comprised of angsty teenagers, party-hardy twentysomethings, music lovers, and non-threatening weirdos of all stripes— All of whom found solace in this shared community; all of whom were just here to have a good time.
The film would become an underground hit within a few years, with bootleg VHS copies-of-copies-of-copies circulated at concerts, video stores, and record stores around the country, even reportedly becoming a favorite among Gen-X creative icons like Kurt Cobain and Sofia Coppola.
WE NEED A STAPLE GUN
Dir. John Heyn, 1988
United States. 5 min.
In English.
On July 4th weekend 1988, John Heyn & Seth Morris “borrowed” a camera and microphone from the public access studio Krulik was managing at the time to document that year’s installment of the Annual Fourth of July Yippie Smoke-In. The film follows a similar format as HMPL, with Heyn & Morris looking to capture first-person commentary from the event’s attendees and organizers. Needless to say, though, this was not the most organized event, the title stemming from one organizer’s on-stage pleas to the audience for a volunteer willing to head into town on a much-needed errand.
Dir. Jeff Krulik, 1997-99
United States. 7 min.
In English.
In the late-90s, Krulik and Seth Morris tried their hand at television adaptation of the famous 1930s & 40s radio quiz show of the same name, featuring interviews posing a series of alternatingly profound and inane questions to random passersby. Right off the bat, the short opens with one of Krulik & Morris’s best visual gags, in which a low-angle shot of a man standing in front of a formidably erect Washington Monument is accompanied by the question, “Do you think there’s too much sexual imagery on TV?” Alas, the series never made it to air, but Krulik was still able to compile some of its finer moments into this short.
NEIL DIAMOND PARKING LOT
Dir. Jeff Krulik & John Heyn, 1998
United States. 12 min.
In English.
Same parking lot, completely different vibe. Krulik & Heyn’s second follow-up to HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT (after the unfinished MONSTER TRUCK PARKING LOT) flips the script on the original by delving into a fanbase that couldn’t have been more different from the one presented in HMPL: That of soft rock singer-songwriter Neil Diamond. The previous decade’s metalheads are supplanted by middle-aged suburbanites, as passionate towards Diamond as their younger forebears were towards Priest. The film exists in a sort of dialogue with HMPL, acting as a subtle commentary on aging, place, and the sustained love of rocking out.
HEAVY METAL PICNIC
Dir. Jeff Krulik, 2010
United States. 66 min.
In English.
Krulik’s feature-length spiritual successor to HMPL focuses on the 1985 Full Moon Jamboree: A weekend-long farm party, concert, and all around bacchanal taking place in Potomac, Maryland. Though Krulik himself wasn’t present, thankfully two attendees had the wise idea of recording the weekend’s events with a camcorder and stolen CBS News microphone. Twenty-five years later, Krulik revisited the scene with a few of the event’s organizers, attendees, and musicians, combining the original found footage with new for a work that tackles head-on the confrontation of past and present explored in the other PARKING LOTS entries.
Program 3: “Jeff’s People”
Dir. Jeff Krulik, et al., 1995-2000
United States. 103 min.
In English.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 4 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, AUGUST 18 – 5 PM w/ Q&A (This event is $10)
THURSDAY, AUGUST 29 – 7:30 PM
Our third and final program (at least for now…) features Krulik’s independent documentary work from the 90s & 2000s following a series of stints in television development. This era saw Krulik pursuing a number of projects that he’d begun but left to gather dust during his 9-to-5 rut. Most of these works were centered around individual personalities that had piqued his interest— As Krulik himself put it, “talented people who weren’t necessarily considered talented but that I always wanted to work with.” In other words, “Jeff’s People”.
Dir. Elliott Klayman, 1995
United States. 25 min.
In English.
In the Summer of 1994, Krulik and fellow filmmaker & celebrity enthusiast Brendan Conway accompanied former professional wrestler “Classy” Fred Blassie aka “The King of Men” on a royal visit to the nation’s capital. As Blassie tours the sights and scenes that D.C. has to offer, we see him interact with folks from all over the world from Midwestern tourists to Tunisian ambassadors to Vietnamese monks, offering his uninhibited opinions on those pencil-necked geeks in Congress, his friendship with Andy Kaufman, freedom of assembly, the size of watermelons in Arkansas, and his ideas for Blassie-themed replacements to the National Mall.
KING OF PORN
Dir. Jeff Krulik, 1996
United States. 6 min.
In English.
Meet Ralph Whittington: Devoted father, officer for the Library of Congress for over 30 years, and owner of one of the largest private pornography collections in the world. Krulik tours Whittington’s suburban D.C. home housing his collection of over 400 videos, thousands of magazines, and all variety of erotic ephemera.
Dir. Jeff Krulik, 1997
United States. 50 min.
In English.
In 1996, Hollywood legend and certified Nice Guy Ernest Borgnine (you kids might know him best as Sgt. Fatso Judson in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY) purchased a forty-foot luxury coach bus dubbed “The Sunbum”. With Krulik and crew in tow, Borgnine and his son Cris traveled all across the Midwest for a first-person tour of America’s heartland. In 50 of the sweetest minutes ever put to video, we accompany Borgnine as he swaps stories with Illinois locals, tours Minnesota breweries, marches in Wisconsin parades, kisses Kansas babies, dines on the finest Italian cuisine Iowa has to offer, and regales us with tales from his decades-long career in Hollyweird.
I CREATED LANCELOT LINK
Dir. Jeff Krulik & Diane Bernard, 1999
United States. 15 min.
In English.
In 1997, Krulik filmed the reunion between TV comedy veterans Mike Marmer and Stan Burns, aka the masterminds behind the (Spectacle-approved) chimp-starring TV spy spoof LANCELOT LINK, SECRET CHIMP. Krulik juxtaposes highlights from the show with footage of the two sharing anecdotes from their time working on one of Saturday morning’s greatest triumphs.
KING OF PORN 2: THE RETIREMENT
Dir. Jeff Krulik, 2000
United States. 7 min.
In English.
Krulik catches up with Ralph “King of Porn” Whittington at his retirement after 40 years as an officer for the Library of Congress, while the Library’s public relations office breathes a sigh of relief.