Category: Books

    “There is so much more to this book, than the absorbing incidents relating to Maier’s evolving relationship with Waters.”  –Bill Hughes http://baltimorepostexaminer.com/low-budget-hell-making-underground-movies-with-john-waters-book-review/2012/11/03

For a longtime fan of John Waters, there comes a point when you realize that the “Pope of Trash” has a carefully cultivated persona that he never publicly breaks; that the statements he makes in inter­views and appearances, far from being off-the-cuff remarks, are well-rehearsed routines. Any hardcore Waters fan will therefore be intrigued to…

With a title like Low Budget Hell: Making Movies With John Waters, this memoir by Robert Maier is going to appeal instantly to fans of the iconic cult movie director. However, Maier’s book also goes way beyond just working with Waters and is an absolute must read for anybody interested in the making of independent…

Robert Maier’s status in the pantheon of cult filmmaking is well assured, as he toiled on five John Waters films (including Female Trouble, Polyester and Hairspray) early in his career. Not only did he live to tell the tale, but he’s written about it in a new autobiographical book, Low Budget Hell: Making Underground Movies…

Robert Maier was a production manager working with John Waters on some of his earlier films. From Pink Flamingos to Hairspray he had the unenviable job of keeping the films inside their tiny budgets in hopes that bigger and better Hollywood dreams were going to come along. They did, but not for Maier or Waters’…

John Waters does not want you to read this book! Why? Well let’s just say that Mr. Waters is revealed, in this compelling and engaging account,   to have many flaws that are more reprehensible than simply being known as the “Pope of Trash”.  He is defined as a very calculating and ambitious person who stepped…

This book is a note from the underground with perfect pitch: its language is uncannily faithful to its time and place. On one level, it is about people and an art form “on the edge,” in a penniless state of wonder, of emerging, of “making it” – or trying to – and of paying the…

Having dabbled in the filmmaking community with some short amateur films (both behind the scenes and in front), the process of movie making has always been of interest to me. With advances in technology and easier access to equipment, it has become much more conventional to see people putting together their own projects. But I’m…

Review of Low Budget Hell by Guy Savage    (from His Futile Preoccupations…) Although film is an important part of my life, I’ve never nursed a secret desire to be involved in film-making at any level. I’ve always thought that while films are great to watch, making them would be hard work. That thought was recently endorsed…

Review of Low Budget Hell by Al Sumrall on Amazon.com Low Budget Hell succinctly tells the personal experiences of the author in the low budget film industry in the 70’s and 80’s. Mainly but not totally, under John Waters, he recalls events and how they affected him and the many people who sacrificed and worked…