There will never be another filmmaker like John Waters. Having started his career as an underground filmmaker, Waters’ eclectic taste has now become mainstream. This summer’s hit Hairspray has clearly cemented his place as one of America’s national treasures. In the John Waters’ documentary This Filthy World, which captures his popular speaking tour, a young fan asks a question. The aspiring underground filmmaker asks advice to pursue his dream to make great underground films. To which Waters responds that underground film is dead. It’s all been done.

Unfortunately, for the most part, I agree. And it’s not only dead. It’s all over the web and it marks the end of an era… the end of the bootleg videotape and underground film as we know it.

Over the years I have amassed a collection of over 3,000 videos cataloged by genre and neatly arranged in alphabetical order. This archive of VHS treasures sits proudly in my dry, cool garage on tidy shelves. Okay, I have to admit that they’re not all that neat. The variety of labels and packages reveal that this assortment was cobbled together from over a decade of collecting. The tape boxes even divulge the story of the evolution of movie packaging for home video. The scribbled labels spanning various eras tell the tale of organizational methods adopted and then abandoned in the hopes of creating the ultimate library of films lost and forgotten. And while my rules for organizing this stockpile of cinema on magnetic tape alter from year to year, one rule has remained constant:
If you can rent it or buy it at the local video store, that movie has no place in my collection.

Todd Haynes’ The Karen Carpenter Story is still unavailable... legally, that is.

The logic is simple – I can go to the video store and rent and/or purchase any mainstream Hollywood movie – anytime. There is no thrill in the purchase of Todd Haynes’ Oscar-nominated film Far From Heaven on DVD since that can be found without much effort. But if you can get your hands on Todd Haynes’ now classic and totally illegal short, the puppet-animated drama The Karen Carpenter Story, you have hit gold. And if you can find a copy of that is as close to first generation as possible, one that hasn’t been copied from one VHS to another countless times, then you have an incredibly rare bootleg.

You can go to any video store, hell, you can go to a grocery store and pick up the latest Disney animated feature churned out from the mouse factory. But there is one that you will never find and that is the controversial family film from 1946, Song of the South. If you happen upon a bootleg DVD, whip out your wallet and add it to your own collection.

Every chain store must carry Star Wars. But you will not find The Turkish Star Wars for sale in any legitimate video establishment. In fact, you won’t find any Turkish films at all. The Turkish Star Wars (in its original Turkish titled Dunyavi Kurturan Adam which loosely translates into “The Man Who Saved the World”) is an exquisite treasure that will open up an entirely new world of films to enjoy from Turkey. Be sure to look for Turkish versions of The Wizard of Oz, Superman, Star Trek and E.T. along your cinematic treasure hunt.

Disney's Song of the South can only be found as a bootleg made from a Japanese laser disc.

The Karen Carpenter Story, Song of the South and The Turkish Star Wars are merely a small sampling from this bizarre world of movies that will never, ever be shown at a theater or available at the video store. These films can only be found by putting forth great effort, and sometimes, unreasonable sums of money. My travels to find these movies have taken me to film festivals, obscure screening events, comic conventions and on the Internet buying videos from the other side of the globe. But these obstacles have never stopped me, nor should they stop any film fanatic in search of cinematic holy grails. In a way, I like to consider myself the Indiana Jones of indie film. It’s the only way my collection of videos will continue to grow. I remain ever vigilant in my efforts to uncover those movies that push the boundaries that make Hollywood movies bland by comparison.

However, recently most of the content I just mentioned can be found, and without much difficulty, on the internet. The shelf space allotted to my proud collection could fit in the palm of my hand on a hard drive. YouTube has clips from all the aforementioned films and many more. While TV studios file lawsuits to get their clips off YouTube, underground film is being pillaged and exposed for all to see.

I could look on this as a good or a bad thing. The thrill of discovery is gone. But the exclusive underground club as I knew it has now become the viral video of the moment. So, maybe that's not a bad thing. I can actually see something positive in this, like underground filmmakers like Damon Packard finally getting exposure for his brilliant work.

Underground filmmaker Damon Packard could be the next John Waters.

I guess it's the same argument I get into when I hear people complain about Hot Topic at the mall. I grew up with punk and music and fashion were hard to find. Better a Hot Topic at the mall and the subversion of young minds on a mass scale than a Banana Republic.

So, while the underground may be dead when it comes to physical medium on VHS or DVD, the influence of these hard-to-find movies will be felt online for years to come. And filmmakers like Damon Packard will offend a whole new audience.

Gore gone.

Chris_Gore is an author, a filmmaker and the creator of Film Threat. Chris cherishes his collection of 100 laser discs, 50 CD-i movies, and over 3,000 VHS tapes. NOTE: The next Footage Fetishes column will feature a Damon Packard story that is guaranteed to both shock and arouse.