Photo by Dan Ball
Mike McCarthy has been called the Godfather of Independent Cinema in Memphis but don’t hold that against him. Writers who don’t understand McCarthy’s work call him an “exploitation auteur.” He’s really just a bad ass cartoonist who could never meet a deadline and realized films were quicker. He likes the Golden Age of American pop culture and makes grandiose statements like, “Nothing of any original value has occurred since the death of Elvis Presley.”
McCarthy is sometimes privately visited by his old films; ghosts of starlets, great rock and roll, and memories of property once owned and sold to make films. McCarthy was conceived in a drive-in and abandoned under a comic book spinner rack on a hot Tupelo night. McCarthy’s mother once sent him a large can of popcorn with a one hundred dollar bill inside. Ever since, he’s been making movies under the moniker of Guerrilla Monster Films (since 1994).
McCarthy’s brand new feature film (a pure Memphis product): CIGARETTE GIRL is having it’s world premiere at REVELATION. He wished more Americans knew about his work but in the meanwhile he wants to meet the Australians.
McCarthy will be writing a western while in Perth and will be having a damn good time with a traveling retrospective following the REVELATION festival.
And no, he doesn’t ask permission, he shoots until they make him stop, and he denies everything. Even abroad.