ABOUT ZED FEST

You’ve heard of “B-Movies” right? The low budget second movie in a double feature. They were usually bad, real bad. But you probably have never heard of “Z-Movies” have you? The Z-Movies (or as we like to call them “Zed-Flicks”) were usually the independent no budget films that were even worse than the “B’s” (Actually many of what is considered an old B-Movie today were actually “Z’s” back when they first came out.)We actually think that the “Z’s” are better.

These so-called bad movies were made by people with such passion for their projects that they would not let anything get in the way of their completion. Our hero, Phil Tucker could not afford to have a robot costume made for his classic ROBOT MONSTER, but he knew a guy with a good gorilla suit, then had a space helmet made out of papier-mâché, and just kept going. If that is not passion for your work, we do not know what is.

Zed Fest was created just to honor and acknowledge filmmakers who persevere against all odds to get their movies made no matter what the final result. And in our competitions we look past the final finished result whether “bad” or “good”, and recognize the spirit of passionate filmmaking itself. So, just because a film is accepted and honored here at Zed Fest does not mean that it is a “Bad” movie as much as it means that we think the filmmakers themselves are pretty “Bad to the bone”!

Zed Fest was founded by Ed Stephens and Wendy Medrano to support and encourage independent low budget filmmaking outside the Hollywood System.

Zed Fest founder Ed Stephens
shouldering a Red camera.

"The idea for this came about quite simply, I already had an informal Film Festival going in a sort of video swap with some friends, loaning out our favorite B-Movies to each other, and getting together now and then. And also as a struggling filmmaker and screenwriter myself, I got tired of submitting my material to festivals and competitions that couldn't fully appreciate my work." Says Ed, "Seriously, I'm not a great writer or anything. In fact I intentionally write BAD. There aren't very many of us that truly appreciate the so-called bad movie now are there?"

With Zed Fest, Ed hopes that he can support the art and passion of filmmaking at it's most basic level, while encouraging filmmakers to dig deep into their creative souls to explore the easiest most frugal methods of bringing their stories to life.

The reason I wanted to start this festival was because I wanted to support local up and coming Film makers. Although there are other festivals around I always felt that low budget film makers, like my film making heroes Roger Corman, George Romero,John Waters, David Lynch, and Jim Jarmusch. As well as the more recent admirable filmmakers like Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, and Robert Rodriguez who were not being encouraged or supported. And it dawned on us that if that platform isn’t there, then we may not discover the new representation of these great film story tellers.

Zed Fest co-founder
Wendy Medrano

As a young kid I loved the movies, most of us were told growing up you "shouldn't see that movie" "its too scary" I think the more I heard that from adults, the more I was tempted to see those movies, and the scarier the better.

I would stay up late watching movies like Night of the Living Dead, Village of the Dammed, The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby ,The Omen. Anything by Alfred Hitchcock was a must see for me. Then as I got older I would sneak in to see Freddy Krueger do his magic and watch Vincent Price in Edgar Allan Poe movies by Roger Corman. I guess it’s safe to safe to say that I love a good suspenseful scare, so naturally I also had many late night marathon viewings of 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s “schlock” theater as it was called back then. Now it is an honor to make something on a low budget for the love and passion of a good story that should be told on film. But in those days people did not give the respect that those movies should have gotten, because it was not understood yet how hard it is to do something for the passion and devotion to a project rather than the possible profit. Well, in our small way we feel their work is not going to be forgotten. In the future as we grow we would like to slowly and progressively bring attention to the past low budget filmmakers that have inspired us and maybe meet the next generation of gifted people who have passion for film making today. As an aspiring screenwriter and producer it's a fun journey to be on.