CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1980): The Most Controversial Found-Footage Movie Ever Made!

CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1980) d. Ruggero Deodato (Italy)

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Despite its reputation as one of the most controversial exploitation films ever made, Italian director Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust (1980) occupies an unexpectedly important place in cinema history. Its blend of documentary aesthetics, media-critique, and staged “found footage,” anticipated techniques that would later become mainstream, showing up in everything from reality television to modern horror franchises.

The story centers around four American documentary filmmakers, presumed dead after they go missing somewhere in the Amazon. The television studio who funded the expedition send an anthropology professor, played by adult film star Robert Kerman, deep into the jungle in an attempt to track down the unaccounted-for filmmakers, eventually stumbling upon a primitive tribe. Not only does he manage to make peace, but also reacquires the film canisters that belong to the missing documentarians.

We eventually see the footage via an unofficial screening back in the US for a group of unemotional money-hungry TV executives. This footage consists mostly of the four filmmakers traipsing around the jungle taking time out only to taunt and abuse that local tribe members. Their utter disregard for regional customs leads us to our grand finale in which we see in, up close and morbid detail, their eventual fate.

Cannibal Holocaust’s enduring notoriety continues to spark debate about ethics in filmmaking, censorship, and the responsibility of artists why in how shock, style, and social commentary can collide in ways that challenge audiences and the industry alike. en representing violence and other cultures—discussions around extreme cinema that are as rich and heated today as they were 45 years ago. Far from being mere “trash,” Cannibal Holocaust endures as a provocative case-study in how shock, style, and social commentary can collide in ways that challenge audiences and the industry alike.

Join AC and his gutsy panel of guests (Art Ettinger, Rigo Garay, Michelle Kisner, Anny Maurya, Tim Palace) as we celebrate 45 years of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IM6EJ_VZQ8

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