TRIBUTE TO ITALIAN EXPLOITATION MAESTRO JOE D'AMATO | Offscreen

Inferno Rosso - Joe D'Amato on the Road of Excess (2021), a documentary by Manlio Gomarasca and Massimiliano Zanin, crowns our tribute to an unsung master of Italian genre and exploitation, Aristide Massaccesi (1936 - 1999), better known as Joe D'Amato. In a career spanning nearly 45 years, he made more than 200 films as either producer, director, screenwriter or DOP. He worked in multiple genres: spaghetti western, peplum, war film, giallo, comedy and post-apocalyptic sci-fi. But his cult reputation stems from his horror, erotic and hardcore output.
 
D'Amato was a product of an Italian film industry in thrall to "sequel compulsion", in which a successful (usually foreign) template is reproduced, and often vulgarised, in a series of low-budget imitations and rip-offs. At best, this spawned bizarre, taboo-breaking genre hybrids full of extraordinary titillating and sensational set pieces, all steeped in an aesthetic of extremes.  
 
D'Amato's best-known work includes five films in the Black Emanuelle sexploitation series (1976-1978) starring Laura Gemser, and horror/porn crossovers such as Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1979). In the horror genre, he is chiefly remembered for the Eurogothic giallo-adjacent Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973) and his grand guignol chef d'oeuvre Antropophagus (1980), starring the imposing Luigi Montefiori, better known as George Eastman. Eastman essentially became D'Amato's partner in crime, writing screenplays for his films and thriving in the Mad Max-derived post-apocalyptic subgenre, one of the craziest epigones being Endgame (1983), D'Amato's own favourite of his films.
 
Alongside Manlio Gomarasca, co-director of the documentary, the Italian SFX and make-up artists Mauricio Trani and Pietro Tenoglio, who collaborated on some of D'Amato's films, will be testifying to the craftsmanship and legacy of this maestro in the art of excess.
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EMANUELLE IN AMERICA

16 March 2023 - 21h30 | Cinema Nova

Gorgeous Laura Gemser stars as the globetrotting photojournalist in her third Black Emanuelle sexploitation pic, which, despite the title, also visits Venice and the Caribbean. Hardcore highlights include horse masturbation, a posh cake orgy and a grisly snuff film. And keep your eyes peeled for some top 1970s decor!
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ANTHROPOPHAGOUS

17 March 2023 - 21h30 | Cinema Nova

An idyllic Greek island holiday turns into a Tripadvisor nightmare when young tourists are stalked by a entrail-gobbling, foetus-eating cannibal. D'Amato and Eastman's most infamous collaboration covers the handsome actor's face with crusty makeup for a gore classic that earned a place on the UK's "Video Nasty" list!
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EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD

17 March 2023 - 23h30 | Cinema Nova

An American property developer aims to build a luxury resort on a tropical island, but the place is cursed... with flesh-eating zombies! D'Amato and Eastman (who wrote the screenplay, as well as playing a lusty skipper) combine two of their favourite genres in this horror/porn hybrid filmed in the Dominican Republic.
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INFERNO ROSSO: JOE D'AMATO ON THE ROAD OF EXCESS

18 March 2023 - 17h00 | Cinema Nova

Here's valuable documentary insight into the career of the filmmaker who (under multiple pseudonyms) rode the waves of Italian exploitation trends such as horror, post-apocalypse action, and porn both soft and hardcore. Contributing friends and colleagues include Lamberto Bava, Michele Soavi and, of course, George Eastman.

Screened for the first time in the unreleased extended cut! 
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ENDGAME

18 March 2023 - 19h30 | Cinema Nova

Mad Max 2 meets The Running Man in this gloriously entertaining post-apocalyptic Z-movie shot on the outskirts of Rome. The tyrannical regime wants all telepathic mutants dead, so a game show champion agrees to escort a bunch of them to a safe haven, in return for gold; George Eastman plays his nemesis and occasional ally.
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DEATH SMILES ON A MURDERER

18 March 2023 - 21h30 | Cinema Nova

A rich couple takes in a lovely amnesiac (Swedish starlet Ewa Aulin, of Candy fame) whose carriage crashes right in front of their mansion. Big mistake: she's not as angelic as she looks! D'Amato goes full-on Eurogothic, with a pinch of Poe, a splash of Carmilla, a dash of decaying corpse and a soupçon of splatter.