 |
| Occupy Cannes Photo: Fantasia International Film Festival |
“Thank you for paying attention to Troma,” says Lloyd Kaufman, sincerely, when we meet at the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival. I find it difficult to understand how one could do otherwise – whatever one might think of it, it has a way of getting noticed. in fact, its guerilla marketing tactics are among the subjects of Lily Hayes Kaufman’s new documentary, Occupy Cannes, which the three of us, along with star Catherine Corcoran, are ostensibly here to talk about. But with Lloyd in the room, conversations have a tendency to wander.
As we get comfortable, I remind him of our last meeting, many years ago in Edinburgh, when its film festival coincided with its wider festival. His wife (Patricia Swinney Kaufman) had been very excited about attending that. He apologises that she hasn’t been able to join the team at Fantasia, explaining that she had to go to an important meeting with the Mayor of New York City. They’ve been together for over half a century but he still beams with pride whenever he talks about her.
“Lisbeth Kaufman and Charlotte Kaufman, Lily Hayes’ sisters, they came last night,” he adds. “And Asta Paredes and Clay von Karlowitz stars of Return To Nuke ‘Em High, so it's great. Mitch Davis is the best curator of any festival that James Gunn and I have ever been to. We believe that Fantasia is the best, and Mitch is the best curator. And it was a wonderful event. Lily Hayes had a standing ovation. It was a packed crowd, and Toxie was there. It was spiritual.”
The documentary was very much a family project, Lily says.
“I wish that my sisters were here with us for this interview. We really made this film as a team. We grew up in Tromaville, and so the lines have been so blurred for us. As to superheroes, real life, where the two end, where Tromaville ends and the real world begins, with all these characters like the Toxic Avenger and Sergeant Kabuki Man and Dolphin Man. And so in this film, it was so important to us to try to do our best to show a real story.
“We grew up behind the scenes with this filmmaker, our dad, Lloyd Kaufman, who was constantly pushing the line and pushing everyone's buttons and going overboard. And at the same time, we love him so much. So I hope that we showed a true and real perspective, but at the same time, we wanted to be honest and open about the fact that, you know, we are a family. How can any child be totally true and lose the rose-colored glasses that you look at your parents with?”
“Lily Hayes, Lisbeth and Charlotte Kaufman have all had to act in former movies because didn't have to pay them and didn't have to worry about the child labour laws,” says Lloyd. “And Lily Hayes, at a very young age, got to hold a gun and shoot a priest in the head. It's amazing. Did a good job, too. How old were you? About this?” Having imitated shooting with his hand, he holds it straight out to indicate height.
“Probably six or seven,” says Lily.
“Yeah. Yeah,” Lloyd nods. “She did a good job.”
Catherine assures me that she has her own place in the family unit.
“A lot of Lloyd’s fans know him as Uncle Lloyd, and it does kind of feel like a extended family. They've been so gracious to welcome me into it – Lloyd, his wife and all three of his daughters. They were joking last night that I am the fourth Kaufman sister, and I would take that as such an honor and a compliment because they're all such brilliant, multifaceted, fully talented women.
“I've always been so proud to be a face of Troma. When I got cast, I remember walking out of the audition and calling my mom. I was 18 years old and said, ‘There's no way they're ever going to cast me. They're not. I don't think I got the part. You know, I'm not really cool enough to work for this company, but maybe they'll let me intern for them.’” She laughs. “It's been part of my entire adult life, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“I think people recognise you from what is in the zeitgeist. For a long time that was Return To Nuke ‘Em High. As I've gone further along, I've been privileged enough to have other projects that people recognise me from. But whenever Lloyd calls – I joke that it's like a strange dog whistle. We all come running, all of us who have worked there. You know, for him. I'm not in The Power Of Positive Murder but I have to admit, I was watching.
“I was on the West Coast and I was watching people film it, and I was feeling very left out. I was like, ‘I should just go. I should just get on the plane and I should just go and see if I can help. I had to talk myself out of it.”
“Catherine, like James Gunn and Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Samuel L Jackson, is among many people from the Troma school of filmmaking who moved up the food chain,” says Lloyd. “Because I'm good at selecting talent, but I'm not necessarily talented. Catherine, she's moving up. She's got a big film now with Saturday Night Live stars – not to mention the Terrifier movies, which I didn't care for. But mainly because they hung Catherine upside down and they shouldn't have done it for a long time. You can get a cerebral haemorrhage. But they’re a huge success, and good for them.”
They had another legend involved this time around.
“We're so grateful that Roger Horman and Julie Corman have been involved in this project,” says Lily. It's just such an incredible partnership. I’m definitely so grateful for that. I mean, Roger Corman has been such an important part of dad's life for so long.”
“He’s helped Troma a lot,” says Lloyd. “And this Lily Hayes movie is Roger's last credit. And he and Stan Lee – speaking of Fantasia and pop culture – they really both were very generous over the years, more than 50 years, to help Troma move up. We got the Marvel comic only because Stan Lee loved Toxie and got the white men upstairs to do something with it. And of course, then Marvel went bust. One of those bad billionaire took it over. But then it comes back with a vengeance, so how cool is that?
“Now James Gunn’s running Warner Bros. The Troma person who directed and produced for us runs the studio that has created this incredible Superman, which is a very good film, and nobody in film history has done that. And Lily Hayes and Catherine are talented and they will prosper, without a doubt. And I will ride them like a pilot fish on the back of a giant shark.”
He’s ridden the industry very effectively now for a long time. What's the secret of his success, when so many other independent studios have come and gone in the meantime?
“Well, Shakespeare said ‘To thine own self be true,‘ and there's a lot of truth to that. When we came across Trey Parker and Matt Stone, their movie Cannibal The Musical wasn't finished, but we could see it was terrific. And we were the first stop on the train, because they're Troma fans. We said, ‘Why don't you go to all the big companies and get some money, and they'll help you finish the film and maybe you’ll get an advance.’ It was terrific. And all the music! it was hilarious. It's better than The Book Of Mormon. And then nobody got it, and it came back to us. We finished the film Cannibal The Musical, and it's one of our most successful movies of all time.
“It’s just because we understand movies and we love movies that push the boundaries and are unique and come from the heart, soul, and mind of the filmmakers. I think as long as we keep doing that and making our own damn movies, I think Troma will keep going.”
Troma will be back in the headlines soon with the release of the Toxic Avenger remake, but Lloyd says that he has no direct involvement in that.
“We’re involved in name only. You know, Michael Herz, my partner of 52 years, who co-directed the original Toxic Avenger – he doesn't go out in public, so he does not get the credit he deserves. But he also believes in filmmaking. He loves cinema. And he is also a shit disturber, but doesn't talk about it the way I do.
“One thing that's good now is we have a streaming service that Lisbeth Kaufman convinced us to initiate more than 15 years ago: Troma Now. There are about a thousand movies there. It's all the Troma movies for 52 years, and you'll see a lot of wonderful new filmmakers who are making films from their souls. And Troma Now is actually profitable. It's small, but it's growing. And Troma Now is free for the first month. A lot of people who have not been able to see Troma movies on a big screen, they can enjoy Troma films as well as classics like Frankenhooker and Basket Case and Maniac Cop. Because we're the last really legitimate independent studio. And we've been honest. We don't make much money. In fact, we don't make any money. But we do send statements to the Troma now directors. Again, little checks. Two, three dollars, maybe a quarter.
“The first month is free, and then it's only $4.99. And there are cartoons and family friendly movies with Hollywood stars. And Kevin Costner's first movie. We own Robert De Niro and Brian De Palmer's first movies. It's really great. Buried treasure!”
The business has changed a lot in recent years, he continues.
“It's much harder. Now we have absolutely no business. Nobody wants what we have except the fans. But it's difficult to break through the hymen of the mainstream without getting, you know...” An abrupt cough from Lily obscures his next word, but he continues. “Talent will out and Catherine will get there. Hayes will get there. Eli Roth got there, Samuel L Jackson, all these people that started in Troma movies, they got there. So it is – talent will out. I do believe that and it's true.
“James Gunn, he just kept writing scripts and writing scripts. Finally one clicked and he was off and running after Tromeo And Juliet, which was well received too. It was a great film. It’s just, you know, the trade magazines like Variety and Hollywood Reporter, they basically don't cover real independent cinema, so Tromeo and Juliet, when it came out, didn't get the world that it should have. But now it's huge. Huge.”
He’s only had a couple of days at Fantasia this year, so not long enough to see many films in the line-up, but he has been trying.
“The Miike film [Sham] was very good. He's a big Troma fan. I've known him for more than 30 years, and he's a world class director. But most of the time we spent with different audiences because there was a Troma tribute and there was a party for Occupy Cannes.
“We're looking forward to Addison Heimann's Touch Me,” says Lily, and Catherine nods enthusiastically.
“Yeah, that looks great. We were so excited about that.”
“Oh, I did see Sugar Rot,” Lloyd remembers. “It’s very good. You might enjoy that. It’s kind of Troma-ish, but it's totally original. It's great.”
Catherine notes that Andrew Bowser has a short at the festival: Frankenbabes From Beyond The Grave!
“His feature Onyx The Fortuitous And The Talisman Of Souls premièred at Sundance and also has Olivia Taylor Dudley who's in Touch Me. His short feels very much like the sister to Frankenhooker. It feels he very much is like channeling Henenlotter in that. I didn't see it here, but I saw it somewhere else, and I loved that as well.”
Lily also mentions Hold The Fort, which she unfortunately missed out on seeing, but which she’s keen to catch on the basis of its trailer.
“Every movie that Mitch Davis curates, I like,” says Lloyd. “I’ve been many times to Fantasia, but if I could stay the full two weeks, I would do that. In fact, James Gunn and I did have a few days in ’97, and went to probably seven or eight movies, and every one of them was just great – you know, interesting even if it was slow. There was a Bulgarian film with nuns that was out of sync, but it was freaky. Mitch is the best.”
