Underground Film Journal

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Flashback: Psychedelic Glue Sniffin’ Hillbillies

By Mike Everleth ⋅ January 6, 2011

Embedded above is a five-minute clip from Craig Smith’s underground movie classic, Psychedelic Glue Sniffin’ Hillbillies, which screened way back at the first ever Chicago Underground Film Festival in 1994. This clip truly has everything you could want: Cheap, junky Jesus art held as proudly as if it were the Mona Lisa; drunken basement ramblings with karate chops; beer-drinkin’, Martian mask-wearin’ good ol’ boys, roadkill, dancing old folks and more. Whew!

Back when I first discovered and posted up the lineup for the 1994 CUFF last month, I went in search of whatever happened to many of the films that screened, primarily looking to see if any were released on DVD. Not many, but some have been.

Psychedelic Glue Sniffin’ Hillbillies is being self-released by director Smith and you can buy a copy at the film’s official website. The DVD comes with director commentary, out-takes, other short films and more. I believe the entire film runs about a half-hour and was originally filmed in Super 8, so it has that awesome old-school grainy quality to it.

There’s not much else on the web about Craig Smith’s other filmmaking efforts, if he has any. However, he has a couple notices up about being a curator and projectionist. The Washington City Paper has an old screening notice from 1995 where Smith was forced to curate a night of underground films. The films he chose were Alex Winter’s Squeal of Death; Jon Moritsugu’s Brain Dead But Still Kicking and Mommy Mommy Where’s My Brain; and Martin Scorsese‘s The Big Shave.

Also, a West Virginia Gazette article pegs Smith as a projectionist for The Mansion Theatre, a venue that was founded by MicroCineFest’s Skizz Cyzyk.