{"id":15704,"date":"2021-07-02T07:01:51","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T11:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=15704"},"modified":"2021-07-07T22:01:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T02:01:28","slug":"inteview-joe-lansdale-hansi-oppenheimer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/inteview-joe-lansdale-hansi-oppenheimer\/","title":{"rendered":"All Hail the Popcorn King….and Queen! An Interview with Joe R. Lansdale and Hansi Oppenheimer"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"posterAfter decades of cranking out high-caliber, genre-smashing literature, and with a badass martial arts pedigree to boot, it\u2019s remarkable that no one tackled a documentary about East Texas\u2019 reigning champion of mojo storytelling, Joe R. Lansdale. Along came intrepid New York City filmmaker Hansi Oppenheimer, a self-described fangrrrl<\/em> who grabbed her camera and jetted to the source, joining Lansdale in his hometown Nacogdoches, Texas, to film All Hail the Popcorn King<\/em>. It was a journey — what Lansdale\u2019s rabid fans might call a pilgrimage — to East Texas, the site where the local color echoes through Lansdale\u2019s masterful tales of blue-collar anti-heroes, two-bit criminals, and voracious monsters lurking in raucous honky-tonks, musty movie houses, and swampy bottom lands frequented by their fictionalized counterparts. Through her lens, Oppenheimer grants us an intimate visit with our favorite raconteur, inviting us into the oldest town in Texas, and the place Lansdale calls home.<\/p>\n

The titular Popcorn King, of course, refers to the brutal demagogue who presides over his popular work The Drive-In<\/em>, still one of Lansdale\u2019s most outrageous tales. It also refers to a special popcorn blend, concocted by Landale\u2019s wife Karen, that sent the author to bed with bizarre dreams and a stomachache, but whose hallucinatory effects helped conjure his earliest literary visions. Lansdale shares a cornucopia of anecdotes and insights on these topics and more, showing the breadth of his interest from classic literature to music history to the martial arts, while displaying a tireless dedication to his craft. Oppenheimer\u2019s artsy guerilla-style technique suits the Lansdale story well, and their work ethic, mutual love of comics, and free-wheeling approach blend to help Oppenheimer overcome a myriad of challenges working on a shoestring budget during a pandemic.<\/p>\n

At the time of writing this article, Oppenheimer is self-distributing limited-edition DVDs (with 90 minutes of additional interviews and outtakes) on her website (squeeprojects.com<\/a>). Cemetery Dance spoke with the director and her subject about guerilla filmmaking, B-movies, and the Texas-sized affection that radiates from the screen.<\/p>\n

(Interview conducted by Chris Hallock<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Portions of this interview have been edited for size constraints.<\/em><\/p>\n

CEMETERY DANCE: A lot of fans would agree that it\u2019s a shame Joe R. Lansdale isn\u2019t more of a household name. How did being a fan of his work shape the way you approached the project, especially knowing that this might be an introduction to those who may be unfamiliar with his work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Hansi Oppenheimer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

HANSI OPPENHEIMER: Yeah, that still shocks me; I can\u2019t imagine people not knowing his work. I mean [the documentary] has helped a lot of people. I did it because I wanted to celebrate Joe, that\u2019s what it is. If it turns more people on to him, that\u2019s great. He doesn\u2019t need my help with that. It\u2019s just a matter of getting his name out there to people who might not have heard of him. That\u2019s great, it\u2019s been really rewarding. They\u2019re all telling me about all the books they\u2019ve read.<\/p>\n

What was your personal introduction to Joe\u2019s work? What was the first book of his that made you say, “He\u2019s got me”?<\/strong><\/p>\n

HO: I think it was in Silver Screams<\/em>. It\u2019s so long ago, it\u2019s the ’80s. God, trying to remember anything from the ’80s is a little blurry. I started reading his work really early on, all the way through. I\u2019ve always been a reader of his. The opportunity for me to be in Texas, for him to be available, everything just kinda lined up really nicely.<\/p>\n

Joe, you\u2019re already immortalized through your work, and you seem like a person who doesn\u2019t really care about that sort of thing. What made you decide that this was the right time to do a documentary? Has anyone else approached you to do a documentary project? I\u2019m surprised there wasn\u2019t one already in the works.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Author Joe R. Lansdale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

JOE LANSDALE: Yeah, I actually had been approached about it before, and about memoirs and stuff like that, but I just didn\u2019t feel that excited about it. I think getting older, and looking back at what you\u2019ve done, you can at least appreciate that you\u2019ve been around, that you\u2019ve done some things. Hansi had such a good approach to it, and it was the first time I\u2019d heard anything I thought I really wanted to do. I kind of liked the sort of — this maybe seems like it\u2019s not giving it its due — but that sort of fly-by-the-seat of your pants approach. But I think that was a good approach. It\u2019s not too unlike the way I write, so I enjoyed that. And I think that we could have very personal conversations, and it didn\u2019t seem like it was so planned, and it felt more natural. For me, that was the appeal, cause I sorta thought that\u2019s what she was gonna do from having spoken with her. I was certainly convinced when she came to do it, and it went well.<\/p>\n