It’s a cold and cloudy Trenton morning, and after the shout of “action,” I’m being slammed by a brick and kicked by a group of punk-protestors.
But, according to the filmmaker Tony Catanese, I deserve it.
After all, I am part of a ring of evil bankers who just ripped off the world and are gleefully counting our ill-gotten gains in front of a state building on South Broad Street.
Well, not really. The bankers and punks are area residents who showed up after Catanese, aka Tony Goggles, put out a call for volunteer extras for his new film.
And with a why-not attitude, I answered the call, put on my black suit, and showed up that Sunday morning to have a Styrofoam brick land on my freshly shaved head.
And while I didn’t know what the film’s name or plot was, I knew what was important — that Catanese is serious and talented in what he does and is helping to continue Trenton’s presence in film — one that goes back to the big silent film featuring the capital city, “Janice Meredith.”
Based on the romantic Revolutionary War novel about a young “beautiful rebel’s” interaction with historical figures, the 1924 film produced by newspaper mogul William Randolph Hurst was created as a vehicle for his paramour, Marion Davies.
The film’s big moments include the reenactment of George Washington crossing the Delaware River and the ensuing Battle of Trenton, where Meredith has been captured by the British and is under the watch of the ill-fated Colonel Raul.
Yes, it’s outdated and creaky, but it is also fun to see Ye Olde Trenton come alive and catch noted film comedian W.C. Fields as a drunken British soldier (see the entire film on YouTube).
Historic Trenton also has a cameo moment one of the most critically acclaimed films of all time (and one that has an ironic connection to the previously mentioned film).
In Orson Welles’ 1941 “Citizen Kane,” the news reel opening recounts the life of newspaper mogul Charles Foster Kane and shows Kane and his bride leaving Trenton town hall, where they just got married.
The above noted connection to the Hurst-produced film is that the fictional Kane was based on Hurst and his attempt to mold Davies into a star.
While not a film, Welles’ infamous “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast — one of the most famous broadcasts in history — also cast Trenton and the New Jersey State Police as the first responders to the invasions of Martians landing in nearby Grovers Mill.
Trenton via the “Trenton Makes” bridge also makes a guest appearance in influential German-born film director Fritz Lang’s 1954 film “Human Desire.” It occurs at the film’s conclusion with the main character played by popular mid-20th century actor Glen Ford sitting back in a train crossing the Delaware River.
After years of waiting, Trenton gets its big break as the central locale in Trenton-born producer, writer, and actor Amy Robinson’s 1983 biographic slice of life “Baby It’s You.”
Directed by New Jersey filmmaker John Sayles, the film takes viewers back to 1966 Trenton, when a young college-bound Jewish girl becomes smitten with a fellow Trenton High male student, a Frank Sinatra-worshiping would-be singer who goes by the nickname “Sheik” (as in the condom brand).
The film’s title comes from the name of the hit song by the era’s popular girl-group the Shirelles. The soundtrack also includes an anachronism: the then-new songs by Bruce Springsteen. And while not of the period, the songs certainly accent the homegrown New Jersey flavor.
The film works as a time capsule that helps viewers see a Trenton that once was — before the Jewish and Italian populations moved away and into the suburbs. It also deals with issues of the sexual norms of the day with the reputations and hopes of young women dashed by young men trying to prove their masculinity through sexual conquests.
With scenes of now vintage cars driving over the Trenton Makes Bridge and scenes of Trenton (shot elsewhere), it’s a nostalgic trip to a city existing now in fading memories. Check it out on www.dailymotion.com/video/x5kosz9
Trenton is also the location for the 2012 film “One for the Money.”
It’s based on the first of writer Janet Evanovich’s bestselling series of novels featuring the exploits of the plucky Trenton-born lingerie saleswoman-turned-bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. It stars Katherine Heigl.
Although the books are spiced with Trenton attitude, this film’s “Joisy” seems canned and the proceedings routine, making one think the filmmakers should have stayed in New Jersey rather than using Pittsburgh as Trenton’s stand-in.
“The Crossing” is the 2000 television film of George Washington’s gambit of crossing the Delaware River on Christmas Day to surprise attack the Hessian army in Trenton and reverse a series of loses for the Revolutionary Army.
Variety called the A&E production featuring Jeff Daniels as Washington a “nobly executed but flawed look at the Revolutionary War’s most celebrated event. Not focused enough on the lingering effects of the journey, the cable web’s ambitious telepic gets high marks for effort only. Viewers who know little about the expedition will appreciate the simplistic history lesson, but demanding audiences may want something that resonates with more significance.”
And while the review pretty much says everything, it is worth watching to see the recreation of the battle and goings on in 18th-century Trenton — something far different from those in “Janice Meredith.”
Several other films and filmmakers with Trenton ties also deserve mention — although they both give a nod to Trenton’s less attractive features.
The 1989 comedy “The Dream Team” features a group of mental patients from the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital who escape during a trip to New York City. “The Hurricane,” with Denzel Washington playing the lead character in the real-life story of Paterson boxer Ruben “Hurricane” Carter’s false conviction of murder, shows Carter waiting at the State Prison in Trenton. And the Jersey Devil flick “The 13th Child” opens up on West State Street and gets scary when it takes viewers into the New Jersey State House.
A good number of Trenton natives left town to make films in Hollywood. Among those are Zalman King (aka Zalman Lefkovitz), “9 ½ Weeks” and “Wild Orchards”; William Mastrosimone, “With Honors” and “Extremities” (based on his play); Michael Cristofer, “The Shadow Box” (based on his play) and “Original Sin”; Marc Behm, “Charade” and the Beatles’ film “Help!”; and Ntozake Shange, “For Colored Girls” (based on her celebrated stage work).
However, they and a score of Trenton-born performers and writers mainly kept Trenton out of sight.
But with new technologies making filmmaking easier, local filmmakers are discovering that Trenton is a muse that keeps delivering.
For example, take Catanese’s Trenton-set “Girls Just Want to Have Blood,” accepted as part of the New Jersey Film Festival under its unabashedly politically incorrect original name, “Teenage Bloodsuckin’ Bimbos.”
“For the time and budget we had, I can’t believe we pulled it off. I look at the film and can’t get over it,” says Catanese about the quality of the film during a past interview.
He says the origin of the film stems from his making movies at age 15 in his Groveville (Hamilton Township) home he shared with his construction worker dad and supermarket employee mom.
After graduating from Steinert High School in 1998, he wasn’t interested in going to college but signed up for a few local classes and wrote a letter to Troma Films in New York City — the independent makers of the “Toxic Avenger,” “The Class of Nuke ‘Em High,” and other low-budget favorites.
Troma invited him in and gave him a hands-on education on low-budget filmmaking with duties ranging from production assistant to wardrobe manager.
They also gave something you don’t learn in college. “From Troma I learned how to do things with what we have and make it work — that’s the key to low-budget or no-budget filmmaking. You need to get it done.”
Eventually Catanese returned to the Hamilton-Trenton area, sold drums at Russo Music, began playing drums with the Trenton band Honah Lee, started working with Exit 7A Creative Services, and began a series of B-horror films, including the 2015 film “Sodomaniac.”
IMDb (the Internet Movie Data Base) describes the film as “a group of degenerate serial date rapists” who “have the tables turned on them when a masked killer begins to hunt them down one by one and killing them in the most painful, degrading way possible.”
“We had an idea that we thought would kick the door open with ‘Sodomaniac,’” says the director. “But it was very niche audience. So I thought, let’s make a movie that is broader. And I thought, ‘Vampires! Everyone likes that.’ So I tried to make a broader (audience) movie, but it’s still a little weird. The point was to make a movie that we could sell and reach a broad audience. But it’s still a niche audience.”
Another successful element is the film’s soundtrack — mainly of music from the Trenton region. “I wrote the whole movie to ’80s rock, then I was thinking I’m in a band, so I hit up my friend Drew Russo — drummer in the area metal band Midnight Hellion — who knows everything about ’80s music.”
The result was pulling in music from successful and artistically strong Trenton-area bands to replicate the ’80s sound. “The big thing was finding the right bands that fit the tone,” he says.
Then Jim Smith, the Hamilton-born electronic composer and owner of the music company TEEEL, took a liking to the project and allowed access to his work.
The result, says Catanese: “We basically got the perfect soundscape we wanted. I’m really happy how that came all together — I like it better than what I had hoped to use. I was really happy.”
In addition to his work at 7A, Catanese is the film festival coordinator for NJ Horror Con in Atlantic City and the drummer for Trenton band Honah Lee.
Assessing his work, Catanese says, “We make B-movies, but I like people to say, ‘That was a lot better than I thought it would be.’”
Another Trenton filmmaker is Jeff Stewart.
As longtime area film reviewer and writer Joyce Persico wrote for the CNS, Stewart was born in Trenton but moved from one town to another growing up, from Wrightstown, to Bordentown, Manhattan and, in 2001, Mill Hill.
He attended Northern Burlington Regional High School and studied at New York University and Temple University for degrees in filmmaking and creative writing.
He describes himself as “a child of the 80s” who inherited a love of movies from his late father, Otis, who gave him an old VHS camera when Jeff was two. It inspired him to become a filmmaker and, he adds, “I’ve never been without one since.”
“I was raised as much by television and movies as I was by my parents,” he once stressed. But before he established himself as founder of A Different Path Films, Stewart took an assortment of jobs, including one as a janitor at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, comic book writer, professional photographer, and a radio show host.
Having grown up the city, Stewart knows what longtime residents miss and fear. Much of the beauty of the downtown is lost in a swirl of crumbling housing and dangerous streets that empty after State House workers go home. He’s not oblivious to the hard truths, just eager to point out that there is a viable arts community ready and able to turn things around, either through street art or events
It’s a spirit Catanese shares. “I love this city. There’s energy and things happening. Just being in Trenton influences me. I couldn’t do what I do if I were somewhere else. I’d never get anything done if I were in New York” — not to mention creating a scene for a writer to get smashed with a brick on a Sunday morning.
For more on Catanese and his D.I.Why? film company, visit www.facebook.com/diwhyfilms. For info on Jeff Stewart and his A Different Path production company, go to www.adifferentpathfilms.com.
Trenton filmmaker Tony Catanese.,
