Heavy Metal Parking Lot is a state of mind:
an interview with Jeff Krulik
By Pat Doyen -- Oct. 2002

Best known for the notorious "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" (HMPL), Washington, DC based Jeff Krulik produces documentaries dealing with arcane pop culture. In his films such as "King of Porn," "I Created Lancelot Link," "Ernest Borgnine on the Bus," and "Obsessed with Jews," Krulik finds unusual people in normal situations or normal people in unusual situations and quickly zeros in on the ridiculous.

Krulik is a prolific artist who has shown his work all over the world. He has been involved in the film and television industry since the early '80s, including production, promotion and programming. He spent five years developing and researching programs for Discovery Channel and the Learning Channel. Since May 1995, he's been an independent freelance producer. I was able to speak with him as he was finishing his latest film.

PD: How did it go with editing?

JK: Pretty good. We finished Hitler's Hat. It blows my mind. We actually got it done. It's such an oddity, I can't begin to tell you.

PD: Can you tell me what it's about?

JK: Sure. It's about a G.I. who, at the end of WWII, actually stole Hitler's top hat out of his apartment in Munich. A Jewish G.I. He took it and he actually crushed it, he stomped on it, and took it home as a souvenir of war. He took it to his home in Albany, NY where he then put it in a brown paper bag and stuck it in the bottom of his magic trick closet. He became a performing magician and so he literally kept the hat in the bottom of his magic trick closet. And then I found it, it was on display at the Jewish War Veterans Museum in Washington, DC in like 1997. I just flipped when I heard the story. I ended up pursuing it at that point as a documentary subject but then for one reason or another it didn't happen at that time. We ended up shooting it in 2000 and it took 2 years to edit it. We're now going to submit it to film festivals and start that whole process.

PD: Let's back up a bit. After HMPL you worked for the Discovery Channel, right?

JK: I did work for them. I ended up leaving the company so that I could roll up my sleeves and produce. I was more of an administrative person there, although we were in the programming department helping to decide what goes on.

PD: And you did Follow the Torch, where you follow the path of the Olympic torch, for Discovery?

JK: I got to do that as a freelancer. I left Discovery in '95 and I was an independent producer at that point and I started to do a lot of my own wacky stuff. HMPL was getting around, but things didn't really pick up again until the mid '90's. I did the torch thing in '96 as a freelancer.

PD: And that was just for the internet at the time?

JK: Right, but I had shot so much stuff. This was in the infancy; this was way before you saw the proliferation of internet video. So it was like, you know, I shot tons of stuff and when they used so little I retained the tapes. I knew there was all this good material and so that's when I made my follow that torch video, you know, Follow That @#*! Torch! I guess I cut something together from all that footage because so little of it was used.

PD: I think most of the people you make films about ride this line between being normal or mundane, and way out there kooky.

JK: I'm glad you say that because I agree. You know what a lot of it has to do with is my own personal eccentricities. I find that I'm drawn to these people; I become friends with these people, if I'm not friends with them already. I just have a real affinity for offbeat stuff because I'm kind of one chromosome away from them. You know, I've always been a collector and I've always been into strange things.

PD: You say you have an affinity for these people and I think that shows in your work. You're very respectful of everybody. Your films are very funny, but never disrespectful.

JK: Thank you, that's really nice to hear 'cause I do try. I understand what happens whenever you turn a camera on there's a degree of exploitation. I think that's probably why I put myself in frequently, or you hear my voice or I'm somehow even on camera from time to time.

PD: A good example of that is King of Porn.

JK: Yeah, we knew each other, which was kind of cool. We were friendly and I knew Ralph's [Whittington] collection. This fellow introduced me to Ralph I think because he understood my sensibilities and knew the kind of stuff that I was into. And then Ralph was a pretty out there character, in a certain sense, and yet he's very normal, at least to me.

PD: Well, I think he is, and that's one of the interesting things.

JK: That's it! For me, the greatest compliment is, and I know I've succeeded, when people ask me, 'Is this for real?' And I think I've hit the jackpot with Hitler's Hat because everybody always asks 'Is this true?' 'Is this for real'?

PD: I know! I thought that at first, but I thought well, of course it's true, it's a documentary.

JK: I always say it's a documentary but yet the reaction is so far out. Of course it's true, but I would say the same thing. That would be my reaction too. So I guess I've succeeded. I guess this one might hopefully, you know, kick me upstairs, which is what I'd like. I mean I love the underground universe, it's been great to me, but I'm hoping that with this, I'll also be seriously considered by festivals.

PD: It would be nice for you to have a wider audience because I think a lot of people share your sense of humor.

JK: Well, yeah. What's cool though is also if I have something new, people might then want to see some of the other work, you know, like the Ernest Borgnine road trip for instance, or other things that people might still find interesting and would still hold up.

PD: Well, it took a few years for HMPL to catch on with the mainstream. You seem to be 10 or 15 years ahead of it.

JK: Right, it's true. Recently, somebody in LA who got turned on to the Borgnine thing said 'Wow, you really were ahead of your time with the reality tv', and it's like, dammit, you're right! That's kind of why I'm thinking it might have some shelf life. But it's cool 'cause we really did envision that back in the '90's for exactly what the Osbornes became and every other reality show that's been trying to duplicate that. We were aiming high with that, we took it to the big television programmers convention and tried to sell it. I mean Ernest Borgnine is no Ozzie, but it just really had that reality cache back when nothing was really going on.

PD: Have you done anything for tv before?

JK: Well, coincidentally, believe it or not, I've got my first project underway for the Travel Channel, which is owned by Discovery, which is where I still have a lot of friends and people rooting for me, thankfully, and trying to help me out, and I have a project on sideshows, which are a real love of mine. I don't know if you're familiar, well you might be familiar with Shocked and Amazed books.

PD: Yeah.

JK: James Taylor out of Baltimore, I'm actually making a television version of his books, Shocked and Amazed TV. They want to call it Traveling Sideshow, but I'd rather call it Shocked and Amazed. Shocked and Amazed would work a hell of a lot better.

PD: Well, you have an audience already for Shocked and Amazed.

JK: Right, and that's what I'm banking on. And James is totally on board, so we're moving forward with that. But it's always been stuff that I'm interested in, it's what I love and so it's great to work my way back to network television, because that's kind of where I came from (at Discovery Channel). And so I'm able to take that experience now and actually get a deal, get a project.

PD: You have so many projects going on at once.

JK: Well, you know, this is stuff I've been working towards but it's hard to do it on your own and I'm still flying solo here. I don't have an office, I don't have a production staff.

PD: You're still DIY, no matter what you do!

JK: Exactly! Exactly! That's where if I had the capital I could actually have an office to work from and a studio instead of just letterhead.

PD: Hopefully Hitler's Hat will be the next level, a new direction thing.

JK: Exactly! I really hope, I'm thinking it could do it just cause it looks good, the response has been good, you know, MOMA is interested, the New York Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Center, which is pretty big is interested, and it's all about just trying to maintain the exposure.

PD: You're one of the few people working right now who could be doing something for the Travel Channel and have MOMA interested in a film at the same time!

JK: Yeah, I guess you're right. That's funny! Wow. I was mentioning HMPL - we still are very much interested in that as a property to exploit and sell and screen. In fact I'm working on a possible deal right now to do HMPL as a TV series, and we're like "damn straight!" I would love to do that and it looks like it could actually happen. I think if we can make some money and then be able to have some fun with fleshing this out as a reality type series where you'd go around and talk to fans. My thing is it doesn't have to be heavy metal. The whole thing is like a state of mind. HMPL is a state of mind, that's what we can have fun with.

So stay tuned!
The Richmond Moving Image Co-op will present Jeff Krulik in person with a selection of his films on Wednesday, October 23 at 8:00 pm at the Shockoe Bottom Arts Center, 2001 E. Grace St.
To learn more about Jeff Krulik, visit www.planetkrulik.com