Dive down the rabbit hole with Straight to VHS, a documentary that attempts to unveil the mysteries of Uruguay’s most notorious cult film and its director.
Direct-to-video oddities flourished in the ’80s. VHS tapes were cheap, and they gave a gritty platform to filmmakers in every nook and cranny, allowing them to prolifically produce entertainment that defied most cinematic conventions. Fast forward to Uruguay in 1988, when an enigmatic and mercurial director, Manuel Lamas, put an indelible stamp on the industry with ACTO DE VIOLENCIA EN UNA JOVEN PERIODISTA (also known as ACT OF VIOLENCE IN A YOUNG JOURNALIST), a low-budget release that quickly gained fame as Uruguay’s first direct-to-video thriller. Achieving a cult status akin to Plan 9 from Outer Space and The Room, and celebrated by local cinephiles and camp aficionados alike, the film continued to grow in infamy, largely due to the exotic theories surrounding Lamas, about whom virtually nothing is known.
Enter director Emilio Silva Torres, whose feature film debut, Straight to VHS, sets out to unveil the decades-old mystery of Lamas and his bizarre cinematic oddity, delving into the fans, dark myths, and lost VHS cassettes that have kept its legend alive.”
BONUS FEATURES:
The original 1988 feature ACTO DE VIOLENCIA EN UNA JOVEN PERIODISTA (presented in Spanish with English subtitles)
Official Trailer
Explore this eerie story, out on May 17, 2022, from Indie Pix Films.
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