Split Screen is an irreverent, sly magazine format show which takes an inside look at the tremendous diversity of filmmaking in the United States. Created, written and hosted by long-time producer/talent scout John Pierson, this half-hour series breaks through all the highbrow stuff to illustrate why independent moviemaking is so much fun. Pierson travels all over the country with noted filmmakers, many of whom he helped discover and wrote about in his recent book Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema, and talented unknowns, some of whom will comprise the next wave.

On Split Screen you will see:

  • Spike Lee admit he believes half of what he says.
  • Kevin Smith forget the price of milk at the Quick Stop convenience store where he shot Clerks.
  • Roger Ebert suggest that after Sundance, Slamdance, and Slumdance the next festival in Utah should be called Shitdance.
  • John Lurie go ice fishing with Willem Dafoe.
  • a young filmmaker crash his car to collect the insurance to finance his film while another wannabe repeatedly smashes his lead actor's head through an unyielding cabinet door.
  • Bob the Mailman deliver undiscovered film gems like Direction "Bam" Man.
  • an inexplicably popular screenwriting teacher explain his "brainstorming computer."
  • John Waters confess that he never got over the vomit bag given out at the drive-in where he first saw Herschell Gordon Lewis' Blood Feast.

In short, Split Screen is the place where the independent film elite and offbeat meet.

If you're wondering what we've been up to during the extended off-season, we turned How's Your News? (see Episode #44) into a feature documentary, and traveled halfway around the globe in search of the world's most remote movie theater. We found it, the 180 Meridian Cinema, in Fiji. You'll see it on Split Screen's fourth season Labor Day premiere, the first of sixteen all-new episodes.

But we're really having a double premiere this fall. For twelve weeks starting October 2nd, Split Screen will be shifting gears. In conjunction with the publication of the newest editions of Faber & Faber's splendid Projections, we'll be showcasing a series of twelve extended interviews unified by the theme of filmmaking in New York.

Split Screen 2000 Features
Episode #66
Projections - Stacy Cochran


Episode #65
Projections - Ted Hope/James Schamus


Episode #64
Projections - Buck Henry


Episode #63
Projections - Tod Lippy and John Pierson


Episode #62
Projections - David O. Russell


Episode #61
Projections - Walter Bernstein


Episode #60
Projections - Jonas Mekas


Episode #59
Projections - Juliet Taylor


Episode #58
Projections - Harmony Korine


Episode #57
Projections - Christine Vachon


Episode #56
Projections - David Picker


Episode #55
Projections - Wes Anderson


Episode #54
Video on Vinyl: Then and Now
Focus Group From Hell
Multiplex III - The Staff


Episode #53
Multiplex II - The Manager
Woodworking with Bill
Bikers R People 2
La Boda


Episode #52
"Waking Life" with Buzz
Alloy in Maui
Multiplex 1 - The Projectionist


Episode #51
The Fiji Stooges
The Lost City


Split Screen 1999 Features
Episode #50
Kevin Smith Uncensored: This Ain't No Junket
Part 2


Episode #49
Kevin Smith Uncensored: This Ain't No Junket
Part 1


Episode #48
Field of Feuds
The Moth
Ocularis


Episode #47
BANNED

See here for more info


Episode #46
Manitoba Tonight with Atom Egoyan
Jesus Video Project
Picturing Home


Episode #45
Demolition
Movie Madness: The Passion of Jack Angstreich
Fight School


Episode #44
Inside the Eye of Scorpio Rising
Hangin' With How's Your News


Episode #43
Waiting for Marty
Lunch Break with Michael & John
Casablanca: New & Improved


Episode #42
Filmmaker Cop
Down the Drain with Blaine
Ross McElwee 101


Episode #41
Christopher Walken Cooks
The Incredibly Strange Director Who Stopped Directing and Became a Dog-Man Extra
PXL


Episode #40
Tinseltown
Palm Springs Follies
The Incorrect Video Vault


Episode #39
Red Leader
Keepin' It Real
Tubb in Taos


Episode #38
Re-Enact This!
The Fabulous Stains
How to Read a Movie Poster


Episode #37
Godzilla
Billy Graham Ministries
Big Shot


Episode #36
Umpire
I Beat Andy Kaufman
Springfield, Korea


Episode #35
bolexbrothers
The Critic
Seth Sells
"Hamster"


Episode #34
Young Turkeys
Hair Today, Film Tomorrow
Ring of Steel


Episode #33
Big Miss Moviola
Please Kill Mr. Kinski
A Fangoria Weekend of Horror


Episode #32
Reverse Speech
Producing Schlock
From Porn Houses to Art Houses


Episode #31
Citizen Jesse
AV Geeks
Ugly George vs. Pretty Maggie


Split Screen '98 Features
Episode #30
The Jacob Young Special


Episode #29
Wear and Tear on the Split Screen RV
Manitoba Tonight: Guy Maddin
How'd You Do That? Archival FX
Ready, Willing and Able
Jamaica


Episode #28
Learning
Kuchar
Kids
Production 3
Indie Dogs
Artmark


Episode #27
Acting
The Shoestore
How'd You Do That? Working With a Deaf Actress
Dennis Woodruff: Cast Me!
Seymore Butts: Filmmaker


Episode #26
Location
Movie Saves Town
Three Seasons
Homicide is Good
Seven


Episode #25
Red Bank, NJ
Crispin Glover: What Is It?
Shiney
Frank Vincent
Trailer Touch-Up


Episode #24
Flying
Toy Patient
Making the Waves
Volcano
Indies in Flight


Episode #23
Critters
Sweet Sunshine
Rat Women
Man & Dog
Buy Low, Sell High


Episode #22
Revisiting DC
Velvet Manifesto
NEA Tapes
Flower Power
Dockers: Changing Pants


Episode #21
Las Vegas/Boston/Vermont
(Season Three Premiere Episode)
Rounders in Vegas
Stunts R Us
Crash/Creche
Cattle Drive-In


Season Two Features
Episode #20 Mr MovieFone
Al Milgrom: The Last Crusade
Driver 23
Cosmic Society
Episode #19
Aspen Colorado
Selective Service System
Hurricane Teens
Casting Call


Episode #18
Kansas City
Return of the Blue Devils
Lost in Spain
The Real Casino
Foxwoods


Episode #17
More Texas
Lonesome Blood Trail
Big Joe
The Real Dude


Episode #16
Austin, Texas
Orson Welles, Not Taco Bells
Gimme Some Larry
"Sweet Sweetroll's Baadasssss Spin"
Documation


Episode #15
New Orleans, Dallas, Oklahoma
Reason to Deceive
Dallas Vidfest
Private Eye
Tin Drum


Episode #14
Fort Sumter
It's Elementary
Cotton Fields
Carl Franklin
American Breakdown


Episode #13
Florida
Jimi Story
Bootlegger
Project Grizzly
War of the Worlds


Episode #12
Washington DC
Marathon
John Wayne's Hairpiece
How'd You Do That?:IFFCON
EZ Rider


Premiere Episode:(#11) The Giant Killer
Pocket Cinema
The Lady in Red
Blair Witch Part II


Split Screen '97 Features
Episode #10 Sunflower City
Hands on a Hard Body
The Blair Witch Project

Episode #9 Cinemoids
Donnie Bosnia
Sisters in Cinema

Episode #8 Mr. Pink and Barton Fink
Inside DuArt
Taranteenties

Episode #7 Swingblade
Gatorlando
Spread Fred
Errol Morris

Episode #6 Fishing With Two Johns
Isle of Lesbos
Cyberhostage
Hamster Factor

Episode #5 Screenwriting: An Exact Science
Nine Months
Screenwriting: Part 2

Episode #4 Bob the Mailman in LA
Cold Spring Workshop
Just Another Dance

Episode #3 Quick Stop
Crumb
Direction Man
Making Northwestern

Episode #2 Rick and Eric's Excellent NY Film Festival Adventure
It's Impossible To Learn To Plow By Reading Books
Duct Town

Episode #1 Spike's First Decade
John and Bob in the Office
Hang Your Dog In The Wind
The Real Fargo
The Gruesome Twosome




Disclaimer: Do not send scripts! We won't read them because we don't produce films from the script stage.

© 1997-1999 Grainy Pictures, Inc.