Documentarian of the dead
Director of Document of the Dead, Roy Frumkes prepares for his role as a zombie on the 1978 set of George A. Romero"s Dawn of the Dead. (Photo from Roy Frumkes)
1968"s Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero"s visceral, monochromatic nightmare, unleashed zombies into American independent horror. Romero"s zombie genre has since spawned an unrelenting following and inspired Tulane University alumnus Roy Frumkes" 32-year film journey.
His love for all things zombie led Frumkes to create Document of the Dead, possibly the first “making-of” documentary shot for an independent film.
“Horror has such a fan-base that if you do one horror film and only do romantic comedies after that, you'll be remembered for the horror film.”—Roy Frumkes
When Frumkes began teaching filmmaking at the School of Visual Arts in New York City in the late 1970s, he proposed that the university fund a series of films deconstructing the independent filmmaking process for students. Document of the Dead was one of these teaching tools.
Learning that George A. Romero was filming his Night of the Living Dead follow-up, Frumkes approached the producer and received approval to shoot the documentary. Frumkes" crew drove to the Dawn of the Dead set a Pittsburgh mall and covered Romero"s filmmaking process, from the nightly shoots to post-production.
Frumkes also got the chance to step out from behind the scenes and stagger on camera as a zombie.
“Tom Savini, the Salvador Dali of the makeup industry, said, "Would you like to be a zombie?" The transformation took about 40 minutes,” said Frumkes. Savini"s gruesome work was short-lived, as the scene called for Frumkes to receive a pie in the face.
“I"m getting splattered, and all of his work is gone,” he said. “I feel like I should have worn that stuff for a week, because it was an original Savini.”
Frumkes continued to cover Romero"s projects about every 10 years.
“It was interesting to see the odyssey of the zombie film,” said Frumkes.
Frumkes teaches film history and screenwriting classes at the School of Visual Arts and owns the online magazine Films in Review. The filmmaker is developing a YouTube series based upon his short film Swirlee.
Attending Tulane from 1962â“1966, Frumkes worked as The Hullabaloo entertainment editor while studying English and creative writing.
