THE SECRET HISTORY OF A LOCAL FILMMAKER AND THE REGION

By T.T. Stern-Enzi

This week, The Neon plays host to the world premiere of “Diary of a Deadbeat: The Story of Jim Van Bebber.” The Greenville, Ohio, native has the distinction of producing “Deadbeat at Dawn,” the first feature film made in Dayton, which helped to earn him a reputation as an uncompromising, underground, outlaw filmmaker. He followed “Deadbeat” with cult classics “My Sweet Satan,” “The Manson Family” and many others.

Actor and producer Victor Bonacore’s labor of love documentary “Diary of a Deadbeat” explores Van Bebber’s early super 8mm films and his time in Hollywood, using interviews with Phil Anselmo (from the heavy metal band Pantera), Richard Kern (New York underground filmmaker whose erotic and experimental work featured the likes of Sonic Youth, Karen Finley and Henry Rollins), Nivek Ogre (a Canadian performance artist/actor and founding member of the band Skinny Puppy) and many more to highlight the offbeat markers in Van Bebber’s surreal career.

I caught up with Bonacore by phone for a quick chat about Van Bebber and the sway the horror genre seems to have on this region.

You are originally from New York, but what drew you to Dayton?

Victor Bonacore: Actually, it’s kinda weird because my girlfriend lives here. We met through movies because I act in movies too, horror movie stuff. We met when I traveled to a horror movie convention (Horror Hound in Sharonville, Ohio). I went a couple of years ago with a friend who had a table at the convention where he was selling his movie and then right next to us was a table of girls selling their movie, which was made in Brookville, Ohio. I became friendly with one of the girls, we kept in touch and ended up acting in a film together called “Hunters,” which was a really crazy horror-exploitation film coming out in October of this year. I went back to New York, but we started dating and I eventually moved out here.

Oddly enough, though, I was in Dayton four years ago getting B-roll of Dayton and Greenville for [“Diary of a Deadbeat”]. I’ve been working on this for over five years. I was getting shots of locations used [in “Deadbeat at Dawn”] and going to Greenville. So now, I live in the town I was researching for this documentary.

How did you find out about Jim Van Bebber?

VB: I started out working for a distribution company in New York City called Media Blasters, right out of film school. It began as an internship and then transitioned into a salaried position. I ran their theatrical department, booking their 35mm prints [of horror films] all over the world. I handled their press kits, press releases and interviews for DVD releases. So, I met a lot of people and I just got word about Jim Van Bebber, who I had known about for awhile. I heard he was selling off some of his early films. He had 25-30 Regular 8 and Super 8 films, and I got in contact with him about the films. We talked and I told him I wanted to put them out, so I took out a loan for $5,000 and put them out. Then I decided to use them to work on a documentary about this guy because he’s such an interesting dude. I booked a flight in March of 2010 to Los Angeles to meet him and that was the start of it all.

There seems to be a market here for horror-based or cult underground exploitation works. As an outsider who has now settled here, what do you think about the vibe in the region and how it spawns this material?

VB: Yes, there is something going on. There’s another convention in Strongville, Ohio, that’s really cult underground called Cinema Wasteland, and that’s on a smaller scale than Horror Hound, but it’s really amazing. And they are all obsessed with Jim. I went back in 2009 or 2010, and they were showing his films and talking about him. And now there’s a filmmaker in Toledo making underground movies. I love it because there’s less of a competition about it. People are into it and doing it because they love it, whereas in New York, it is much more about the competition, which can be great. But the vibe here is different and ties into the music scene, which is also cool. There’s a lot of character here and the community seems to appreciate the underground.

“Diary of a Deadbeat: The Story of Jim Van Bebber” screens for one night at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27 at The Neon, 130 E. Fifth St. Director Victor Bonacore will be in attendance.