(When FLESH ORGY OF THE ZOMBIE TOTEM was accepted by the ZombieDance film festival, I immediately sent this news release across the state of Georgia. For some damn reason no one seemed to realize how incredibly important this was, and as far as I know it received absolutely no coverage. So much for culture in this benighted region. Still, I think it's a pretty amusing press release.)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Georgia Filmmaker To Premiere Movie at Prestigious International Film Festival

*** Film Features All-Georgia Cast and Crew;

*** Film is Part of Digital Revolution Sweeping the Film World and Challenging Hollywood

Georgia filmmaker James W. Harris's brand-new film FLESH ORGY OF THE ZOMBIE TOTEM has been accepted for showing by the prestigious international ZombieDance 2002 film festival.

This will be the World Premiere of the film, which was completed just days before the festival deadline.

The ZombieDance festival, which will be showing experimental, avant-garde and just plain weird films from around the world, will be held in Austin, Texas on March 9. This is ZombieDance's fourth year. (The festival's name is a parody of Sundance.)

"I am absolutely thrilled that FLESH ORGY OF THE ZOMBIE TOTEM will be making its World Premiere at ZombieDance," Harris said. "I cannot imagine a more fitting showcase, and it is an incredible honor to be included among the elite filmmakers that will be at the festival."

FLESH ORGY OF THE ZOMBIE TOTEM stars an all-Georgia cast. Harris wrote, directed, produced, and acted in it. Harris also co-edited the movie, and composed and performed the riveting theme music, using ukulele and a specially-modified electric bass guitar.

The short (under 15 minutes) film, Harris's first, was made for under $1 million. "A million dollars -- that's just peanuts for Hollywood," Harris said. "Steven Spielberg probably spends that on catered lunches for his extras."

The low cost was possible in part thanks to digital equipment, which makes dazzling special effects available to independent filmmakers. Harris predicts that the widely-discussed "digital filmmaking revolution" will change the film world forever, allowing visionary independent filmmakers to challenge head-on what he describes as "the mindless and soulless pap that Hollywood inflicts on the world."

FLESH ORGY OF THE ZOMBIE TOTEM is part black comedy, part horror/gore film, part sexploitation, and largely unclassifiable. Harris describes it as "a speculative docu-drama....more real than reality itself" and says it deserves to be "the first film rated 'A' for 'Abnormal.'"

A synopsis of the film, written for the festival program guide, reads:

"A professor steals a fabled zombie totem from Amazon natives. He is plunged into a depraved maelstrom of blood, horror, sexual perversion, soul-death and mind control. Innocent and guilty alike are trapped in an abnormal cesspool of twisted degenerate mire."

The film features Tika, which Harris describes as "possibly the most original and terrifying monster since the 1930s-era Universal horror films." He refuses to give anything else away about Tika. "Audiences will run screaming into the night," he predicts. "If not at Tika, then perhaps at something else.

Tika "still gives me nightmares," confesses Harris. "The making of this film has probably scarred me for life."

Harris is considering expanding FLESH ORGY OF THE ZOMBIE TOTEM into a full-length feature film later this year.

The ZombieDance film festival has been praised by critics and filmmakers as a unique showcase for out-of-mainstream, even deranged, films. Originally formed to celebrate the theme of zombies in films, the festival has expanded to include what the festival Web site describes as: "the very BEST in original rock n'shock underground dementia and classic lo-budget, B-movie cinematic subversiveness...mind-blowing psychotronic splatter-fest freak-out MANIA!!!!"

ZombieDance will be held at Austins world-famous Beerland Rock Club. The festival's coveted "Golden Zombie Awards" will be given in several categories.

Film critic Joe Bob Briggs ("Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In") has praised ZombieDance for "restoring the zombie to its rightful place at the apex of American cinema!" Other films scheduled this year include "Swingers Serenade" (by internationally-known San Francisco filmmaker Danny Plotnick), "The Killbillies" (Australia), and "The Creepees vs. Monster Number Two" (Texas).

Harris is a writer who has had hundreds of articles in publications as diverse as THE NATION, REASON, HUSTLER, THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, CREATIVE LOAFING and many more. He sang and played guitar in Alabama's first known punk rock band, LAST EXIT (1979, one concert, no recordings).

With FLESH ORGY OF THE ZOMBIE TOTEM Harris takes a long-awaited plunge into the world of film and brings his searing vision alive and uncompromised to the adult screen Many more films are planned.

END