exclusive and revealing as always, here's the great....

  Mark Hejnar Interview.
Made by yours truly Swedish Scum

 

Here's the long awaited interview I did with Mark Hejnar. 
It was first done via email correnspondensing in August and November and 
finished with a hour long intensive telephone call on December 13th 2000.

SS: I should introduce your works first, but, when I think about it, I don’t know much about you. If you could start with revealing
some basic stuff like age, about yourself, background, history and a suggested title(video related I guess) that you would prefer.

M.H: I've been making short films and videos with my band Pile Of Cows since the early 1980s. I'm most well known for 
a documentary called Affliction, which features many underground film, music and zine performers, including GG Allin. 
I've gotten a reputation for working with a number of social pariahs.
   

Could give all curious GG freaks a current status on your GG project?  

The first release will contain 2 GG pieces. The first is a 3 camera edit of his 1991 Chicago Exit show. I've shown a rough cut of this
 at the Chicago Expo of the Extreme and the crowds loved it.  The second part is an offstage night with GG and his demented fans
 performing for the camera after the police shut down the show one night in Nashville. This project will most probably be released
 by the fall of 2001. The full length GG documentary's release is unknown at this time, I'm shooting for his 10 year death anniversary.
 This will piss off some fans who want their GG fix now, but that's not my problem. Understand that I shot all this as it happened and
 got it in the can and that is what was important. Since I shot the GG project, I've completed 2 features, 4 short films and 4 other
 music related projects with bands. There will be another feature and several shorts completed before the full GG document.
The material is priceless and it will be worth the wait.

 I talked to a guy who paid about 10 bucks, just to see a 30 seconds commercial clip for the film you're workin on. He had somehow done
that with the belief to see the complete movie. Imagine yourself getting loaded for a movie and then it sudden ends when you think it
should start. I bet he got real surprised.

I'll be happy to clear it up. there was a show in London & the promoter was showing my trailer but he
advertised it as the new GG completed project. I wasn't too pleased when I heard about it. 

Winner: Best Documentary Award, Chicago Underground Film Festival, 1996 for the "Affliction" film, how did that affect your life?

It was extremely rewarding, it validated the 3+ years I put into the project, but it's not like I quit my day job. Affliction won a perfect
 score of 10 from the jury, something that hasn't been replicated in the festival's 7 year history. Then it was promptly rejected from
 the next handful of festivals I entered. I did a 12 city European tour with it in 98, which was a great experience.
 

Tell me a little about the first time you heard of the name GG Allin. Also when & where did you first witness his stage antics? 

I'd read about GG in the early '80s in various fanzines, everyone hated him so I bought a few singles and thought they
 were funny. Bill Cow from the band contacted him in 1985 suggesting if the stories we heard were true, come do it here
 in Chicago. We'll set up a show, be the opening act or the backup band or whatever. This was before he'd ever taken 
a shit on stage. GG came to town on a greyhound bus, he was yelling over cassettes because he couldn't afford to bring
 a band on the road as they never got paid. This was how it worked in those days, write GG a letter, offer him a gig and he'd
 spend 30 hours on a bus to do it, stay till he wore out his welcome, (about 10 minutes) take the bus back and do it
 all over again. The show was pure nihilism, GG broke a beer mug and cut himself open, screaming to the beat, shoving
 the mic up his ass then running into the audience threatening people as the casssette continued on into the next song. 
All bloody and naked beneath a filthy bathrobe with his shriveled up little dick and homemade tatoos, he was quite
 a sight on or off stage. He was a disease. It was beautiful.

Just a little curious follow up questions. That first GG show in Chicago you mentioned could that have been the so called
Chicago Warehouse Massacre(11/15/86) I got the first song on video(Blood for you) and its pretty wild(as always with GG)

That wasn't the show that I was referring to, but I was at that one as well. If I'm not mistaken, that was the second time I saw him perform,
 I have to admit my recollection is a bit fuzzy. However Bill Cow & I had set up a show with GG & us at club Exit for that Sunday night,
the Warehouse gig was that Saturday night. Bloody Mess read some of Brian Clemons (the $20 poem) poetry to open.
There were these skinheads chanting 'GG! White Power!' sieg heiling on the front of the stage. GG didn't like it & he came out &
 immediately threw the mic stand at the crowd of them, hitting the leader's girlfriend in the head. Bill & I knew what to expect, so we stood
 in the back. The spray of shit he let loose on the crowd was like a fire hose, everyone was screaming & trying to run away. The show
 was immediately halted & everyone was kicked out of the club. We went out the back with GG & were escorted  into a  garage
 space till things quieted down. Later a crowd of us went drinking & we got thrown out of 5 or 6 bars as GG was covered in shit. He kept
 yelling at us as we drove, telling us  to roll up the car windows as it was cold & that his shit really didn't smell all that bad. He was wrong.

Could you tell me how your GG film work started & then how it continued.  

There were a few other shows we set up with him in the mid to late 80's. GG lived in a closet at some girl's apartment in Chicago for
 a while. I shot a show with the Toilet Rockers around that time. I was at the Exit show where he first announced he was going to kill himself
on stage, then he maced the audience.  While in prison, he said he was still serious about the suicide, so we decided to start shooting
 the shows and the antics up to and including his suicide show following his parole. The idea was to document the events as they
 happened before it was all over. I toured off and on with him for the next 2 years shooting over 25 shows with several bands,
covering his entire Milwaukee obscenity trial, and a multitude of other events, including his wake and funeral. After his death, I did some
 interviews with a few of the Jabbers and most importantly, his Mother. I've got close to 150 hours of unreleased video footage.

 "Affliction" was banned in Florida, such decisions are often bad, but also use to raise the interest of the subject. GG got arrested in Orlando in 91.
Are they lamer in Florida?  

The film is not actually "banned in Florida," it's a reference to Mike Diana, a Florida cartoonist who was jailed and charged with
 obscenity in his hometown for his comic zine "Boiled Angel," who is featured in the project. I've never tried to use controversy to get
 into the headlines. It would have been easy to send it to the PMRC or Christian Coalition or Jerry Springer to get attention but I find
 that offensive, it's not a carnival attraction. My work is underground and isn't for everybody and I don't want most people to even be
 aware of it. Florida is a strange place--strip clubs next to churches, a serial killer capitol filled with speed metal and old fucks waiting
 to die and afraid to live, turning to religion just in case. But GG got arrested in a long list of cities, not just Orlando.

Back to the upcoming video release. How long will that video be? 

This tape is divided into two segements, the Live At Exit '91 concert and an evening in Nashville when the cops cancel the show
 and GG's fan perform for the camera offstage. Running time is about an hour. 


I suppose you will show all the stuff, including GG's long brown excrements. 

There are no long brown excrements, but runny jet spurts which GG lovingly smears over himself in an act of personal communion.
  " Would you suck my dick with shit on it for TWO drink tickets!" he asks. 

 


I guess this will be shown at american cinemas to start with. Have you got any idea if this will be shown at european cinemas
 or if it will be released directly on video? 

I don't envision this playing in proper American cinemas, but more likely as a part of the underground circuit. 
I'll do a European tour with it as well and then it'll be released in both arenas on video tape. And as digital video projection
 increases, the more likely it will be to be shown near you. But this project is really for the fans of this material, not the average
 moviegoer, so count on it at home. 



 What is your opinion about GG as a musician? favorite records/tracks? 

GG was a talented musician, both as a vocalist and a drummer. In the 80's, you relied on the records because the live shows were so
few and far between. But in the 90's he toured so much more that live was the best way to get a dose, especially with Bill Weber on guitar.
 From the early records, I love "Needle Up My Cock" and "Cunt Sucking...Masturbation." In the later days, "Highest Power" and
 "the AIDS song" were potent fuses. 


Is your band Pile Of Cows still around? What instrument do You play & how would You describe the music?
I liked GG's comment to Pile Of Cows "You sound like this live? Man, you gotta piss the fuck outta everyone. Let's do a record together." 

POC no longer plays out but we survive as a twosome to record and mix soundtracks for my films. I mainly did vocals and
 percussion but have played file guitar, saber saw, radio, buckets of glass, skin flute and a water heater called Kong. We were told
 by a six year old year at a forest preserve spontaneous emission, "I don't like your music, it sounds like static." 




Have you filmed any of those GG videos from Chicago(or elsewhere) that is available through Merle etc.? 
I think it's cool that you have kept your stuff unrealesed this far. It feels good to know they are stored safe.(aren't they??)

Secured very safely. With the exception of the LIVE trailer and AFFLICTION, none of my material is available at this time.
The material will be released in a properly edited form when it is completed. 
I believe it'll be worth the wait. As GG once said, "that muthafucka's got some footage!" 

Did you witness(or film behind the scenes) any of the three talkshows that GG appeared on? whats your opinion on those? 

I tried to shoot at the Springer show, but naturally they have very strict rules about cameras. GG first met Liz at the Springer taping, we all
 got drunk after at the infamous Billy Goat Tavern, (where the Saturday Night Live Belushi 'cheezbooger cheezbooger' routine came from).
All three were fantastic television, a chance for GG to stick his filthy life in the living rooms of the tabloid tv public. 




The french fries enema clip  from Atlanta 1992 is featured in the Affliction video. On the complete enema video you can hear there's some ideas
 about putting out the "happy meal" on a table in the bar to see if some hungry poor bum eats it. 
Do you know if that ever happened? (A picture of this happening was the reason I got banned from Angelfire!) 

"Shit onna Fry" is included on AFFLICTION; it was shot by Jeff BBQ Young. I edited his footage into the sequence,
but I wasn't in attendance at that event. 

 Have you got any favourite GG appearences among all those gigs you witnessed?  (I bet you got!) 

That's a book on it's own. 

 What was the most surprising thing GG did?(not necessar on stage) 

Probably when he told a waitress, "keep the change." New Hampshire motherfuckers can be cheap. 




What project are you working with right now? 

I just shot a new work in London with Whitehouse, the pioneers of harsh power electronics. I start work on a JonBenet Ramsey piece
 with author Peter Sotos soon. I've been screening a Jeff Dahmer short and several other videos in festivals and venues in the US and
 Europe. I'm also doing a documentary on Mike Diana, a Florida cartoonist arrested for obscenity. So there's a lot of things going on. 


Whats your opinion about Marilyn Manson? Is he for real?

It's the further thing from what i'm interested in. When Mike Diana got in trouble, Manson hired him to do a poster for one of his
 shows in Florida, so he was supportive. I don't have anything against him personally, people say very nice things about him,
 but the music is not of any interest to me. But you know, more power to him.




Have you read Evan Cohens book "I was a murder Junkie" ? 

Evan's book is an entertaining "I came of age on the road with GG" tale and should be accepted as that. 
It's not the in-depth GG bio people are waiting for, but that's not Evan's fault. 

I guess you got lots a cool stories 'bout situations while filming GG, like shit on the camera or whatever.   

I could go on for days. His shit was so acidic it burnt a stain on one of my light packs. But some of the best times 
were not on stage but one on one, drinking in bars talking about music.

I bet you got hit by GG's excrements a couple of times too, right?

Oh yeah, there's no way you can work with someone like him without expect beeing hit by blood,shit or something. 
It's sort of like putting a dick in your mouth and then you complain about cum. 


 Is that you wrestling with GG at the hotel in New Orleans 1993? In that case I wonder if you ever beat him?  

I guess that is me, I've never seen the footage but I do remember the night. That was my first and last
 wrestling match with GG, I defer to the Confederacy Of Scum for any real wrestling action.

When was the last time you meet GG alive?  

I saw GG a few weeks before he died. I went on that last tour because I knew it was going to end in a jail cell or 
hospital bed, I guess under a tombstone was the logical extension.

Except for the mentioned “"Affliction" film what more have you released? & Where can I find the other those short GG cuts you mentioned?  

Affliction can be ordered from my distributor in the US at http://www.nextgen-video.com/  
or in Europe from Chainsaw video at  http://www.chainsaw.demon.nl/

A collection of  my shorts will be available soon, but all my work does travel around to festivals. 
As for any of the GG shorts, they have not been released but I do screen them.okay, guess that's it. 
oh yeah, I'm on my way to N.Y to get married.

Didnt GG tell you what marriage brings? It makes you weak! 

He would know, he got married just to get laid!

I guess you'll start to make movies about love and understanding now or is that what you've done all the time?
 haha just kiddin', congratulations man.

Thanks. Fran & I got married on the 8th anniversary of our first... eh... date. We've been living together close to 7 years
 & after signing a 30 year mortgage on our new place, marriage didn't seem like such a big deal. Hey, she didn't mind
 when I went on the road to shoot with GG, but was always glad when I go home.


Ok, she sound like a good woman. Enjoy your wedding and remember not to fall asleep too early on the very night.
Maybe you'll perform that cum & bleed combination trick that's featured at the end of Affliction?

Man, I hope not!
ok, take care.

Mark Hejnar
mhejnar@hotmail.com