Matt Pizzolo

Matt Pizzolo (born on Long Island, New York) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, bestselling comic book writer, playwright, and entrepreneur, best known for his work as writer of the speculative politics comic books Calexit [1] and Young Terrorists,[2] creator of the transmedia franchise Godkiller, writer-director of the indie movie Threat, and director of music videos for Atari Teenage Riot.[3]

Matt Pizzolo
Pizzolo during a Transmedia panel at the 2011 San Diego Comic Con
Born
Long Island, New York, United States
OccupationFilm director, screenwriter, playwright, comic book writer, actor, producer, entrepreneur

He co-founded and runs indie film studio HALO 8 Entertainment with producing partner Brian Giberson and comic book publisher Black Mask Studios with partner Brett Gurewitz and creative director Steve Niles.

In 2012 Pizzolo was selected by Wired as "World's Most Wired Comics Creator" for his work synthesizing genre media with street politics ("anticorporate DIY production") and innovating new storytelling technologies ("engineering the transmedia spine that will take comics into the future").[4]

Pizzolo became involved in political organizing in 2017, leveraging the momentum of his comic book series Calexit. He formed the political action committee "Become The Government" to support first time political candidates in the 2018 Midterm Elections (initially funded by his Calexit royalties), ran interviews with first-time candidates and grassroots organizers in the non-fiction backmatter of Calexit, and hosted Indivisible to run voter registration at his booth on the showfloor of San Diego Comic Con. [5]

Career

Threat
Matt Pizzolo directing Carlos Puga on set of "Threat" with DP Benjamin Brancato and producer Katie Nisa. (photo by Jason Rose)

Pizzolo was 19 years old and living out of a backpack in New York City's Lower East Side, and working at Kim's Video and Tower Records when he wrote the screenplay for Threat, a radical, transgressive story of class struggle and youth violence.[6]

He intended to shoot Hi8 footage of the principal characters, and cutting their dialogue and reaction shots against footage stolen from obscure films, creating a unique project built on film sampling (a common practice in the indie rock music of the time). As the project developed, Pizzolo discarded the sampling format and instead directed it on 16mm film as a traditional independent film despite the fact that its massive scope of location and action was quite ambitious for no-budget indies of the time which generally focused on a single-location, talking-heads format.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]

Threat attracted controversy for allegedly glorifying violence and class conflict. When Threat opened at Montreal's Cinema du Parc, Kevin Laforest of the Montreal Film Journal stated, "Films like La Haine, Menace II Society or Fight Club also portray people raging against the machine, but they ultimately show that violence doesn't solve anything. Whereas Matt Pizzolo's flick openly glorifies murderous revolt, literally telling the audience to go out and beat up random people, just because."[16] When Threat premiered in US theaters, Suicide Girls commented, "Matt Pizzolo shook up Hollywood with his indie movie Threat and the guerrilla tactics he used to produce and distribute it. A defiant and confrontational movie about class war and unbridled youth violence, Threat is not exactly the type of film you might expect to earn its writer-director a multi-picture deal with Sony, but that's exactly what Pizzolo managed to accomplish along with his filmmaking partner Katie Nisa and their Kings Mob multimedia militia."[17]

Threat went on to tour the US and Europe several times. After screenings, Pizzolo and filmmaking partner Katie Nisa would teach DiY Filmmaking Workshops for aspiring guerrilla filmmakers. Over time, the filmmaking workshops became a focus of the events and Pizzolo invited local independent media-makers to teach various DiY-instructional workshops.

DiY-Fest

These workshops developed into DiY-Fest, the "touring carnival of Do-it-Yourself mediamaking" with contributions from notable independent artists including Ian MacKaye, Ani Difranco, Howard Zinn, Jello Biafra, Jim Jarmusch, Jem Cohen, Sarah Jacobson, Abel Ferrara, and many more.[18][19]

"Rage"

Pizzolo was invited to give a lecture on DiY media at 2600 Magazine's H.O.P.E.: Hackers On Planet Earth conference. He titled the lecture "Open Source Mediamaking" and articulated the need for independent media by contrasting the relatively tepid news coverage of the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle against the provocative and incendiary documentary footage shot independently by activists on the ground inside the protests. The radical band Atari Teenage Riot invited Pizzolo to create a video for their song "Rage" and utilize the documentary footage in the hopes of spreading it to a wider audience. Pizzolo incorporated footage from the WTO protests in Seattle, the World Bank protests in Washington DC, and the May Day protests in Berlin where members of Atari Teenage Riot were arrested (footage was provided by pickAxe Productions, Big Noise Films, Re:Generation TV, and Philipp Virus). The video played numerous festivals including the Chicago Underground Film Festival and was later included in Buddyhead's Punk Is Dead music video compilation DVD.

HALO 8 Entertainment
Matt Pizzolo hosts Halo-8's Halloween premiere of Sick & Twisted Horror with Daisy Sparks and Joanna Angel at the Engineering Cinematheque in Hollywood.

In 2005, Pizzolo formed HALO 8 Entertainment, a production, distribution, and marketing company devoted to counterculture films, punk rock cinema, and alt-lifestyle videos. Although the company was partly devised as a distribution infrastructure for Kings Mob's productions, HALO-8 quickly grew into a thriving indie studio with various shingles including horror movie/cult film sub-label UnitShifter Films and alt-lifestyle sub-label DiY-Fest Video.[20]

One of the first films Pizzolo championed at HALO-8 was the controversial and embattled Your Mommy Kills Animals, a critically acclaimed documentary about the animal rights movement. Although widely praised for its unbiased approach, the film drew the ire of Washington lobbying firm Center for Consumer Freedom, who waged a costly legal campaign to block release of the film. Despite Amazon.com, Netflix, and numerous other retailers, film festivals, and movie theaters' decision to drop the film when faced with legal threats and intimidation, Pizzolo stood by the film and continued its distribution despite fierce, ongoing opposition.[21][22][23][24][25][26]

Godkiller and "Illustrated films"

In February 2009, Pizzolo announced his next film would be an illustrated film called Godkiller: Walk Among Us, adapted from his graphic novel of the same name, which was illustrated by Anna Muckcracker. Set in the future after an economic collapse, a nuclear holy war and an alien invasion, Godkiller: Walk Among Us follows an orphan named Tommy as he searches for a new heart for his ill sister, Lucy. Pizzolo explained the inspiration of the story thus: "I thought it would be fun to design a new mythology for fuck-ups and misfits. My goal with it is to present heroes that don't behave heroically because it's their job to maintain the status quo or because they're bored and want to rescue a princess, they act heroically because they're regular misfits who are trying to do the best they can for each other in an unjust, fucked-up world."[27]

The illustrated film format Pizzolo developed with producer Brian Giberson for Godkiller merges sequential art with 3D CGI, motion graphics and dramatic voice performances in the style of a radio play.[28][29]

Godkiller featured performances by Lance Henriksen, Danielle Harris, Justin Pierre (singer of Motion City Soundtrack), Davey Havok (singer of AFI), Nicki Clyne, Bill Moseley, Katie Nisa, Lydia Lunch, and a musical score composed by Alec Empire and Nic Endo of Atari Teenage Riot. [30][31][32]

Once released, the first episodic DVD quickly established itself as its distributor's all-time fastest-selling release.[33]

In August 2009, it was announced the Godkiller: Walk Among Us DVDs would include serialized audiobooks of the prequel urban fantasy/speculative fiction novel Godkiller: Silent War. Set in the near future, Godkiller: Silent War tells the story of Joe Junior, a 17-year-old draft-dodger who is recruited by an armed cult of populist assassins and thrust into a secret world of international cabals, alien conspiracies, and the countdown to Armageddon.[34][35]

In May 2010, the Godkiller: Walk Among Us series of shortform illustrated film was collected into a feature-length film and distributed in theaters. It was distributed day and date with a digital release by Warner Brothers before streaming on Netflix and Hulu. [36]

The comic book sequel Godkiller: Tomorrow's Ashes debuted in January 2012 through a hybrid digital and convention-exclusive release.[37]

Godkiller returned in 2014 as a comic book series published by Black Mask Studios.[38]

In November 2014, it was reported that Godkiller would be rebooted as an animated feature film trilogy directed by Pizzolo.[39]

The Long Knives

During Halo-8's panel at WonderCon in April 2010, Pizzolo announced production of The Long Knives, a comic book illustrated by Ana Ludeshka and animated Giallo film homage to Dario Argento.[40][41][42]

Though not an official prequel, Pizzolo has indicated that The Long Knives takes place in a shared universe with Godkiller and deals with several key Godkiller characters during the breakdown of society that precedes Godkiller: Walk Among Us.[43]

The Long Knives comic book series debuted on digital comics platform Graphic.ly in January 2011 and was distributed through a hybrid digital and convention-exclusive release. [44]

Black Mask Studios

In 2012, Pizzolo co-founded the comic book publishing company Black Mask Studios with Brett Gurewitz. The label was formed with Pizzolo serving as president and Steve Niles as creative director. On forming the company, Gurewitz told Wired "Comics and punk have a lot in common, being transgressive art forms with under-appreciated potential for social influence." Focusing on transgressive art and genre stories with a social message, Pizzolo coined the name Black Mask as an homage to the anarchist group Black Mask and the Edgar Allan Poe story The Masque of the Red Death.[45]

Comic Book Writing: Young Terrorists and Calexit

After Black Mask re-released Godkiller in traditional comic book format,[46] Pizzolo wrote the Amazon bestselling graphic novel series Young Terrorists illustrated by Amancay Nahuelpan, which became one of the top selling independent graphic novels of 2015 (#1 Mature Readers, #2 Marketwide) according to Publishers Weekly. [47]

Pizzolo and Nahuelpan followed up Young Terrorists with the acclaimed comic book series Calexit in 2017, which sold out of its initial 25,000 print run within 24 hours and is now in its eighth printing. [48]

Other work
Matt Pizzolo with Indivisible's Kathy Stadler, ACLU's David Trujillo, CAIR's Yusef Miller at "Voting Is My Super Power" event during San Diego Comic Con 2018

Pizzolo organized the political action committee "Become The Government" in 2017 to support first time political candidates in the 2018 Midterm Elections funded by royalties from his comic book Calexit. [49] In the non-fiction section of Calexit, he interviewed midterm candidate Sara Innamorato and her campaign team ahead of her victory in Pennsylvania, as well as journalist David Sirota whose wife Emily Sirota won a House seat in the 2018 midterms, and numerous other activists and organizers. [50]

An Indivisible volunteer registers a new voter. Calexit's Emmie-X illustrated by Emily Pearson, created by Matt Pizzolo and Carlos Granda

Pizzolo hosted Indivisible to run voter registration at his booth on the showfloor of San Diego Comic Con in 2018, where he unveiled the charity comic book Calexit: All Systems San Diego (referencing San Diego band Rocket From The Crypt's album) which introduced the new character Emmie-X, a pirate radio DJ in Occupied San Diego. [51]

Indivisible San Diego adopted Emmie-X as the face of their 2018 voter outreach efforts with the "Voting Is My Superpower" campaign. Artist Emily Pearson (The Wilds, Snap Flash Hustle, Bonding) illustrated Emmie-X for the campaign. [52]

Pizzolo and Indivisible also organized a free "Voting Is My Superpower" event during San Diego Comic Con at Comickaze Comics in Liberty Station for locals who were unable to afford Comic Con badges. Indivisible leader Kathy Stadler, ACLU Advocacy Director David Trujillo, and Council on American-Islamic Relations community liaison Yusef Miller joined Pizzolo for a discussion of how dystopian art can help prepare people for crises in real life. [53]

Pizzolo has been announced as producer on the Warner Brothers feature film adaptation of the Black Mask Studios comic book series BLACK, about a world where only black people have super powers, [54] and the PictureStart feature film adaptation of the comic book series 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank, about a 12-year-old girl who enlists her friends to rob a bank in order to prevent her dad and his friends from botching the job themselves and getting thrown back in jail. [55]

During Halo-8's panel at C2E2, it was announced that Pizzolo would collaborate with Tim Seeley on an adaptation of the comic book series Loaded Bible.[56]

During the same panel, Pizzolo unveiled the first concept art for Medusa: Year One,[57] which Pizzolo describes as "A twist on the Medusa origin-story.",[57][58]

Pizzolo will direct an illustrated film adaptation of the comic book series Hack/Slash.[59]

Pizzolo organized the Occupy Comics project featuring dozens of comics pros including Alan Moore, David Lloyd, Ben Templesmith, Molly Crabapple, J.M. DeMatteis, Charlie Adlard, Steve Niles, Amanda Palmer[60] and Anna Wieszczyk.[61]

Production style

Pizzolo's artistic and entrepreneurial works are reflective of his DIY ethos and belief that a subversive artist can only maintain creative control of a project if he or she also controls the business aspects including production, distribution, and marketing.[62]

In 1998, while working on Threat, he told Style Magazine, "When we were thinking of starting a DiY production company, there were no models on how to do it in independent film. So we looked to musical role-models like the Wu-Tang Clan, the punk Epitaph label, and the hardcore Dischord label. Now we want Kings Mob to be the role model we couldn't find."[63]

Awards

In October 2006, Pizzolo accepted the Grand Prize for Best Feature on behalf of Threat at the Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival in Lausanne, Switzerland. [64]

In April 2007, Pizzolo was awarded the "First Feature Film - Special Mention" prize on behalf of Threat at the Rome Independent Film Festival in Rome, Italy. [65]

References
  1. Doctorow, Cory (2018-12-16). "Calexit: a fractured California, where militias and the DHS battle the resistance in Trump's future America". Boing Boing. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  2. "Dive Into a Mysterious, Brutal Conspiracy in This Look Inside the New Young Terrorists Collection". io9. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  3. "Atari Teenage Riot- Rage (WTO)," YouTube. Accessed Nov. 30, 2011.
  4. Thill, Scott (November 26, 2012). "World's Most Wired Comics Creator - Evil Genius Plots to Blow Up the Comics Universe". Wired.
  5. Ta, Amy (2018-07-17). "'Calexit': A dystopian vision of an independent California". KCRW. Retrieved 2020-10-06.
  6. "Matt Pizzolo THREAT". Matteo Pizzolo. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  7. Manley, Brendan. "Culture Clash: NY Filmmakers Tackle Race, Politics, Sex and Social Unrest With 'Threat'". Long Island Press. January 12, 2006.
  8. Handelman, Jon. "All Hell Breaks Loose On The Lower East Side Archived 2009-08-14 at the Wayback Machine". McGill Daily. February 3, 2006.
  9. Williams, Jonathan. "Threat Archived 2009-04-21 at the Wayback Machine". Gothic Beauty Magazine. Volume 21, Spring 2006.
  10. Campion, Chris. "The Sundance Survivors Archived 2009-08-15 at the Wayback Machine". London Daily Telegraph Saturday Magazine. February 5, 2000.
  11. Young, Dylan. "Itty bitty Indie Archived 2009-08-14 at the Wayback Machine". Hour Weekly. February 2, 2006.
  12. Null, Christopher. "Threat" Archived 2007-08-08 at the Wayback Machine. Film Critic. January 24, 2006.
  13. Kulkarni, Neil. "Threat Archived 2009-08-14 at the Wayback Machine". Terrorizer Magazine. Issue 144 2006.
  14. Jones, Preston. "Threat". DVD Talk. January 24, 2006.
  15. Mitchell, Wendy. "Threat Of A Deal". IndieWire. September 2004.
  16. Laforest, Kevin. "Threat". Montreal Film Journal. January 27, 2006.
  17. Jihad, Vegan (May 5, 2006). "Matt Pizzolo, director of Threat". Suicide Girls.
  18. Flick, Larry (August 25, 2000). "Do It Yourself" Archived 2007-08-07 at the Wayback Machine. Billboard.
  19. Rogers, Stanley (August 3, 2001). "Fest Shows You Don't Have To Go It Alone to Do-it-Yourself" Archived 2007-06-12 at the Wayback Machine. The Times of Trenton.
  20. Weise, Becky. "In the Backseat with Matt Pizzolo - Halo-8 Productions". 941 Theater Journal. October 21, 2008.
  21. Hays, Matthew. "Dealmakers Scouting Fantasia". Playback Magazine.July 11, 2007.
  22. Goldstein, Gregg. "Halo-8 Lettings 'Animals' Out Of Their Cages". The Hollywood Reporter. July 13, 2007.
  23. Martin, Peter. "'Your Mommy Kills Animals' DVD Pulled by Amazon". Cinematical. November 14, 2007.
  24. Yahoo! News. "'Your Mommy Kills Animals' DVD Hits Shelves Today... Maybe". Yahoo Finance. November 13, 2007.
  25. Martin, Peter. "Indie Online: Netflix, Televandalism and Jaman". Cinematical. May 21, 2008.
  26. Rosenthal, Phil. "Halo-8 Launches Digital Movie Portal 'TELEVANDALISM.com' with Controversial Flagship Archived 2008-08-08 at the Wayback Machine". Elites TV. May 21, 2008.
  27. "The Making of "Godkiller," Full Circle Magazine (Nov. 24, 2009).
  28. Thill, Scott. "Post-Apocalyptic Comic Godkiller Emerges as 'Illustrated Film'". Wired. October 6, 2009.
  29. Mr. Disgusting (February 24, 2009). "Cult Icons Topline Halo-8's 'Godkiller'". Bloody-Disgusting.
  30. Horror, Joy (October 2009). "Interview: Matt Pizzolo". Horror News.
  31. "MAY SPOTLIGHT: Halo-8 PLUS An Interview With Founder Matt Pizzolo!" Archived 2010-05-07 at the Wayback Machine. Bloody Disgusting (May 4, 2010).
  32. Gingold, Michael. "Genre Names Speaking Up For Godkiller". Fangoria. February 25, 2009.
  33. Moore, Debi. "Halo-8 Launches H8LA Apparel Line". Dread Central. November 23, 2009.
  34. Moore, Debi. "Godkiller DVD Will Include Prequel Audiobooks". Dread Central. August 27, 2009.
  35. The Woman In Black. "Godkiller DVD Will Include Prequel Audiobooks," Dread Central. (August 27, 2009).
  36. "Details on the Godkiller Theatrical Tour and VOD Home Invasion". Dread Central. 2010-05-18. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  37. MacDonald, Heidi (January 18, 2012). "Halo-8 releases Godkiller: Tomorrow's Ashes as print/digital sub hybrid". Comics Beat.
  38. Kit, Borys (October 17, 2014). "Grant Morrison's 'Sinatoro' Getting the Comic Book Treatment From Black Mask Studios". The Hollywood Reporter.
  39. Yamato, Jen (November 6, 2014). ‘Godkiller’ Post-Apocalyptic Comic Bound For New Animated Trilogy. Deadline Hollywood.
  40. THEoDEAD. "FIRST LOOK: Halo 8 Announces Illustrated Film: 'The Long Knives'!". Bloody Disgusting. April 7, 2010.
  41. Moore, Debi. "Halo-8 Announces New Comic Book/Illustrated Film The Long Knives". Dread Central. April 7, 2010.
  42. The Woman In Black. "Halo-8 Announces New Comic Book/Illustrated Film The Long Knives". Dread Central (April 7, 2010).
  43. The oDead. "KILLER GRAPHICS #6: Interview With 'The Long Knives' Illustrator Ana Ludeshka Manicchio!" Archived 2010-05-22 at the Wayback Machine. Bloody Disgusting (May 11, 2010).
  44. "Halo-8's Godkiller and The Long Knives Comics Debut on Graphic.ly". IMDb. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  45. Thill, Scott (2012-03-20). "Black Mask Studios' 'Old Punks' Occupy Comics, Creators Rights". Wired. Retrieved 2020-10-06.
  46. Reviews, Kirkus (2015-04-07). "Godkiller vol 1". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2020-10-06.
  47. "Top 100 Indie Graphic Novels". Publishers Weekly. 2016-01-08. Retrieved 2020-10-06.
  48. Hamedy, Saba (2017-07-19). "Calexit: a fractured California, where militias and the DHS battle the resistance in Trump's future America". CNN. Retrieved 2020-10-04.
  49. Gustines, George Gene (2017-07-18). "Comic Books That Put the Pow in Political Power". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  50. Gomez, Luis (2017-07-14). "In dystopian 'Calexit' comic, San Diego is under occupation. SMH". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2020-10-09.
  51. Callwood, Brett (2018-07-12). "Black Mask Studios Is Dragging the Comic Book Medium Into the Politically Aware Era". LA Weekly. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  52. Holub, Christian (2018-07-18). "Calexit releases Comic-Con issue to raise money for immigrant families". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2020-10-08.
  53. Hamblin, Abby (2018-07-18). "Comic-Con 2018: Huge pop culture convention spotlights social justice, political issues". San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved 2020-10-08.
  54. N'Duka, Amanda (2020-10-01). "Warner Bros. Boards Feature Adaptation Of 'Black' Comic From Studio 8". Deadline. Retrieved 2020-10-06.
  55. N'Duka, Amanda (2020-09-03). "Picturestart Acquires Rights To '4 Kids Walk Into a Bank' Comic; 'Dora and the Lost City of Gold' Scribe Matthew Robinson Adapting". Deadline. Retrieved 2020-10-06.
  56. The oDead. "EXCLUSIVE: Halo-8 Releases New info On 'Loaded Bible', Tim Seeley Talks Voice Casting!" Archived 2010-04-30 at the Wayback Machine Bloody Disgusting. (April 21, 2010).
  57. THEoDEAD. "Halo-8 Plans To Re-Tell The Medusa Legend With 'Medusa: Year One'!" Bloody Disgusting. April 21, 2010.
  58. Hess, Michael (April 20, 2010). "Medusa: Year One Exclusive Image. Details are still few, but Matt Pizzolo's upcoming illustrated film makes up want to look on it directly" Archived 2010-04-29 at the Wayback Machine. UGO.
  59. Marshall, Rick (September 10, 2010). "Hack/Slash To Get The Illustrated Film Treatment". MTV Splash Page.
  60. Rao, Mallika (December 7, 2011). "Occupy Comics: Alan Moore And David Lloyd Of 'V For Vendetta' Are Onboard (SLIDESHOW)". HuffPost.
  61. Moore, Debi (January 12, 2015). "Godkiller #2 Celebrates Cosplay with Third Printing and Fan-Made Cover". Dread Central.
  62. Hefflon, Scott. "Threat". Lollipop Magazine. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
  63. Campion, Chris. "Call It A Threat". Style Magazine, via Kingsmob.com. archived from the original on July 23, 2004.
  64. "Amp LUFF Archive". Amp.
  65. "IMDb Awards". IMDb.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.