Gary Lucas

Legendary Brazilian cult film director/auteur Jose Mojica Marins created his indelible Coffin Joe character (a/k/a Ze do Caixao) for a trilogy of films in the mid-60's that occupy their place in world cinema as the missing link between Luis Bunuel and Mario Bava. A self taught film maker who grew up in a small Brazilian town where his father ran the local cinema, Marins was steeped in film craft and lore from a tender age and began making experimental short films in his childhood. He stepped up to the plate as both actor/director/scenarist with his Coffin Joe films--considered the first Brazilian horror films--pushing the censorship envelope with their nudity, provocative morality themes and outre violence-- exhibited throughout Brazil in defiance of the then right-wing military junta, and was thrown in prison several times for his efforts. He became a folk hero in Brazil though for these films, and pop songs and comic books detailing the exploits of Coffin Joe became all the rage of the teenage fan underground of Brazil. Serious left-wing directors such as Glauber-Rocha, the father of the Brazilian Cinema Novo movement, praised Marins as a primitive genius film maker and embraced him as a kindred spirit. Today Marins is enshrined in the pantheon of world horror cinema as a total original maverick genius, and his fans include former Brazilian president Lula da Silva. He went on to make more Coffin Joe films in the 70's plus other entries of the pornochanchada genre and today is regarded as a Brazilian cultural icon.