Low Budget Hell is an unauthorized insider’s story of outrageous 70s and 80s low budget filmmaking where every rule was broken in a crazy world of sex, drugs, and rock & roll.
In his journey through the underground, Maier rubs shoulders with folks like Johnny Depp, Divine, Ricki Lake, Andy Warhol, Jack Palance, Tab Hunter, Bill Murray, Sonny Bono, the Coen brothers, artist Jean-Michel Basquait, The Ramones, and Blondie.
Low Budget Hell is a roller coaster ride of bizarre low-budget movie stories: lunches of Kools, Cokes, and soggy meatball subs;
-riding the subway with $25,000 cash;
-a Federal drug bust on set—at gunpoint;
-meeting with Deborah Harry and Chris Stein—in bed;
-getting death threats from the mob, fending off attacks by irate husbands;
-placating enraged stars and producers;
-going on dates with John Waters to topless movies at Baltimore’s sleaziest theaters.
It was a time of irresponsible experimentation and the story of artists who went from living in their cars to buying million dollar Manhattan lofts— and as John Waters says, how fortunate we are for the statute of limitations.
Robert Maier is a writer/producer/production manager who worked for fifteen years with John Waters on his movies, Female Trouble, Desperate Living, Polyester, Hairspray, and Crybaby, plus a dozen other low-budget movie-makers in New York City and Baltimore. He made the noted 30-minute underground documentary, Love Letter to Edie, and is the author of two books on film and video production. Robert lives in Davidson, North Carolina where he teaches audio and video at a local college.
In his journey through the underground, Maier rubs shoulders with folks like Johnny Depp, Divine, Ricki Lake, Andy Warhol, Jack Palance, Tab Hunter, Bill Murray, Sonny Bono, the Coen brothers, artist Jean-Michel Basquait, The Ramones, and Blondie.
Low Budget Hell is a roller coaster ride of bizarre low-budget movie stories: lunches of Kools, Cokes, and soggy meatball subs;
-riding the subway with $25,000 cash;
-a Federal drug bust on set—at gunpoint;
-meeting with Deborah Harry and Chris Stein—in bed;
-getting death threats from the mob, fending off attacks by irate husbands;
-placating enraged stars and producers;
-going on dates with John Waters to topless movies at Baltimore’s sleaziest theaters.
It was a time of irresponsible experimentation and the story of artists who went from living in their cars to buying million dollar Manhattan lofts— and as John Waters says, how fortunate we are for the statute of limitations.
Robert Maier is a writer/producer/production manager who worked for fifteen years with John Waters on his movies, Female Trouble, Desperate Living, Polyester, Hairspray, and Crybaby, plus a dozen other low-budget movie-makers in New York City and Baltimore. He made the noted 30-minute underground documentary, Love Letter to Edie, and is the author of two books on film and video production. Robert lives in Davidson, North Carolina where he teaches audio and video at a local college.
