Alex Cox

Not really "the making of" STRAIGHT TO HELL, more a sentimental trip down memory lane with most of the cast: Sy Richardson, Joe Strummer, Dick Rude, Sue Kiel, Miguel Sandoval, Zander Schloss, Del Zamora et al. Composer Dan Wool, cinematographer Tom Richmond, and grip Shaun Madigan are also present. Towards the end it takes a more serious turn, as Dennis Hopper discusses the difficulty of funding, directing, and distributing independent features. It was shot by Tod Darling, Tom Richmond and me in 2000 - mostly in the Union Station, downtown Los Angeles. In those days this was one of LA's few available "public spaces." You could sit down and shoot footage with numerous people and no one would bother you. Those seats are roped off and patrolled now.

Rafa Rodriguez and I made this short film during the 2022 Almería Western Film Festival. it premiered at the 2023 AWFF, in the "Outlaw" section. Geoff Marslett (attending the festival with his splendid Quantum Cowboys) shot it; Dan Wool did the music. The locations were Fort Bravo, the Leone Ranch, Tabernas, and the great Almería desert.

Here's another video, produced by Kim Ryan, shot by me, Chris Bernard and Ian Freeman, of Yorkie's show in the ruins of the Futurist Cinema, Liverpool. If I remember right, it was made in 2003. This is the original audio track. The travel footage is trains in Oregon and Tokyo, and old 16mm material from Los Angeles and Nevada.

In the early years of the 20th Century, the Futurist Cinema in Liverpool - having been allowd to fall into ruins - was threatened with demolition. My friend Yorkie managed to gain access to the derelict building and did a live show there. Kim Ryan organized me, Chris Bernard, and Ian Freeman into a makeshift crew, and we filmed the events. I was a camera operator, and quite drunk. The Futurist was entirely destroyed by developers a few years back. But this video reminds me of another great Liverpool edifice erased by stupidity and greed, of great films in 70mm, and of a fine show by Yorkie. You can see interiors of the Futurist in the companion videos - YORKIE - DUST and IN & OUT OF LOVE.

Here's another video of Yorkie's Futurist show. Audiophiles will note that early on I switched from the actual production audio to the record, with its bigger sound. No disrespect to the guitar player! The Futurist is no more, but it was once a great cinema. Its absence is a testimony to avarice and stupidity. (If you liked this you might also enjoy the companion videos shot by me, Chris Bernard and Ian Freeman, and produced by Kim Ryan, YORKIE - ALONE and IN & OUT OF LOVE)

The Making of Repo Chick - directed by Kim Ryan, my dear friend in Liverpool, assistant director on Revengers Tragedy, director of multiple documentaries including Peace Train: the story of the biggest public demonstration ever held in London.

In 2003, after we finished REVENGERS TRAGEDY, Tod Davies, who produced REVENGERS, wrote a feature script based on THE SPANISH TRAGEDY, by Thomas Kyd. Gary Davy, who cast REVENGERS, put together a cast for a script reading in London. I invited Len Gowling, who shot REVENGERS, to attend, poor fellow. As soon as he arrived I thrust a video camera into his hands and said, "Since you're here, shoot it." He had not read the script, and winged the entire thing. The film was never made (not yet, at least) but here is Len's video record of the fantastic cast Gary Davy put together, and the first reading of Tod's script. Seen are Derek Jacobi, Claire Benedict, Marc Warren, Michael Sheen, Carla Henry, Heathcote Williams, Drew Schofield, Hugh O'Connor, Phil Cornwall, Sean Francis, Ray Fearon, Guy Henry, William Thomas, Andy Nyman, and Tim Crouch. (Twenty years ago, this piece was cut into five acts. Those were the days when one could only upload short segments to a rival channel. Now, for the first time, here is our SPANISH TRAGEDY in its entirety)

In 1976/77 I was a student in the Radio, Film and TV Studies course at Bristol University. During my year there, I made this film. It was shot on the Italian Western locations in Almeria and Granada - El Paso, Fort Bravo, Flagstone and CECISA - where ten years later I made Straight to Hell. Black Hills is not a great film, but it's interesting to see what the sets looked like in the mid 1970s, especially Flagstone - the most elaborate of Carlo Simi's Western towns - and CECISA, both of which have vanished now.

Iggy introduces the song he wrote for the feature I co-directed with students at CU Boulder in 2015 - BILL, THE GALACTIC HERO. He composed this lovely tune with Whitey Kirst, alias The Troll. The video was edited by Merritt Crocker.

A video I made with Rafa Rodriguez in 2018, revisiting the locations of Leone's second Western, shot in Almeria and Granada in 1965. Among the places we visited are the Llanos del Duque, La Callahora, Turillas, Albaricoques, Mini-Hollywood, and - of course - the Desert of Tabernas. (clips from the film courtesy of Kino Lorber, for whom this video was made)

This - mostly shot around Monument Valley in the Navajo Nation - details the Rolling Roadshow's inflatable screen and 35mm screening of John Ford's film there - which inspired my own picture, SEARCHERS 2.0. There's also footage of the making of that film, produced by Jon Davison, shot by Steve Fierberg, designed by Cecilia Montiel. The principal actors were Jaqueline Jonet, Del Zamora, Ed Pansullo, Sy Richardson, and Roger Corman. Music, as always, by Dan Wool.

Following my video piece about the Umbrella Man, I was attacked in the august pages of the Smithsonian magazine by a freelance writer who interviewed Errol Morris, dissed my piece, and described me as "dishevelled." Thoroughly encouraged, I made another piece, questioning the authenticity of the Zapruder film, and the mysterious Stemmons Freeway sign...

A short piece I made in response to Errol Morris' piece about the same subject for the New York Times. The mysterious Umbrella Man raised his umbrella as JFK's limousine approached, and lowered it as the President, riddled with bullets, passed. His apparent partner, a man in a blue jacket, raised his fist and lowered it in unison with the umbrella. Both men then sat calmly on the curb and watched as people panicked and ran towards the grassy knoll, behind them. Who were they? Colonel Robert E. Jones, chief of operations for the 112th Military Intelligence group at Fort Sam Houston, told the HSCA that he had between 8 and 12 plain-clothes personnel stationed in Dealey Plaza that day. One of them was briefly detained in the School Book Depository after the murder. Col. Jones described his agents thus: "They were dressed to blend in with the man in the street... Some of them may have had on a sport coat wihout a tie, with an open collar..."

A documentary I directed in 2000, celebrating the classic erotic film series and delving a little bit into pomposity, double standards, censorship, and freedom. We interviewed Sylvia Kristel, Laura Gemser, Just Jaeckin, British film censor James Ferman, and the head of the American Civil Liberties Union Nadine Strossen (which in those days was quite different from the ghost it is today). Francis Giacobetti, director of Emannuelle 2, was most charming but declined to be interviewed, which was a pity, since this was his only feature, and it is the best of the series!

A documentary I directed in 1999, to celebrate the career of the master director. The producer was Tod Davies, and the production company was Liverpool-based Exterminating Angel Films.

Liverpool-based BBC drama about "Reality TV" made with the cast and crew of REVENGERS TRAGEDY - Len Gowing, Kim Ryan, Monica Aslanian, Ray Fowlis, Drew Schofield, Carla Henry, Shaun Mason, plus the divine Christine Tremarco, gorgeous George Galloway, MP, Barry Sloane and Neal Fitzmaurice as the hideous Piers'n'Dean, and my brother director Chris Bernard as the Archbishop. The producer was Sol Papadopoulos of Hurricane Films. The music was by Pete Wylie - the Mighty Wah!