It is Z-day here at the After Dark and the highlight is the
Toronto Zombie walk. Each year, since 2003, hundreds of people in varying degrees of zombie makeup march the streets of Toronto.

I am beyond exhausted with only six hours of sleep in the last 48, and still no time to rest. I missed a chance to personally interview Uwe Boll yesterday because during the interview I was at a screening.

Today there is a similar interview opportunity with Troma films’ Lloyd Kaufman, one of the most important figures in independent cinema. I contact David Daniloff, special guests manager, around 9:00am. The call wakes him and he sounds angry (obviously not a morning person). He says he will call me back.

Meanwhile I finally finish organizing my interview with the guys from Mulberry Street - the Holiday In at noon. The clock is ticking and I have still not heard from David. It is in situations like these that I wish I had a cell phone. Luckily David calls me just before I have to leave. He still sounds grumpy and tells me to be at Film Fiends Video between 4:30pm and 7:30pm for a 5-minute interview with Lloyd. I ask if it will be possible to make the screening of Audience of One, a documentary about a pastor trying to make a biblical sci-fi. David ensures me it will not.

I meet the Mulberry Street guys: Jim Mickel (director, co-writer), Nick Damici (co-writer/lead actor) and Adam Folk (producer/actor). Honestly they could not have been a better bunch of guys. I talk to them for a solid half hour about independent film production, going digital, and famous rats. The film’s budget is far smaller than I had imagined (some bloggers have been stating 100K). The shooting budget was only $24 thousand and another $36 thousand was pumped into postproduction.

After the interview, I cut across town for the Cutting Edge Fantasy screening of 12 short films. Festival programming manager, Peter Kuplowsky explains, “We call it Cutting Edge Fantasy, but basically it’s just the weirdest shit I could find… Some people are going to punch me.” It was certainly an odd collection of films, many of which were more like Fat Boy Slim music videos.

After the screening I make my way to the Zombie walk. There is no stranger sight then the undead walking along in real life. One has to wonder if any paranoid individuals drive past the march and fearing Armageddon drive off to the safety of the wilderness. I leave early to get to the Kaufman interview.

At Film Fiends I am informed that Lloyd will be late. The long delay results in myself and another journalist going to a bar around the corner for a couple of beers. We receive word that Kaufman is further delayed as he was hijacked by MTV on his way over. TV journalists are scavengers with about as much class as a baseball cap at the Oscars.

By the time Lloyd finally arrives (well after the screening of Audience of One) my drinking buddy and I are the only journalists left. I should note that Lloyd arrived with David who, in spite of his early morning grumpiness, is a very nice guy. He even sports a Toxie mask for photographs with Kaufman and fans.

The delay was beneficial in the long run as my five minutes turned into half an hour. Without sufficient questions for such a long interview and fuelled by beer the conversation becomes increasingly political. Independent distribution and increasing market concentration are the main points of conversation; however, there is some discussion of Larry Craig and Jim Naugle’s quarter million dollar robotic toilet plan.

The evening ends with a screening of Kaufman’s latest movie, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead. While the film was not my shot of vodka, it had the packed audience of fans and zombies applauding at every gruesome death and laughing at every ounce of cheap toilet humor. You have to give it to Kaufman: he has been in the business for over 30 years and is still making movies his way -- in spite of financial difficulties.