Cinematic Lit: Revisiting Alternative Movie Posters with Matthew Chojnacki

Though our Cinematic Lit column, Kinophilia revisits great and notable entries into the cinematic literary canon. For this installment, critic Jack Hanley sat down with Cleveland freelance writer and film/music historian Matthew Chojnacki to talk about his groundbreaking work of 2013, Alternative Movie Posters: Film Art From the Underground. As noted in the preview, “…Alternative Movie Posters: Film Art from the Underground is the first book to take a comprehensive look at the spectacular art of underground film posters, and presents this eclectic medium through more than 200 posters from over 100 groundbreaking artists (hailing from 20 countries), coupled with fascinating commentary and behind-the-scenes information.”

Mr. Chojnacki has previously authored the book Put The Needle on The Record, a compilation of the glories of 80’s vinyl cover art.

What was the inspiration behind taking on this relatively niche (and arguably still rather underground) genre? What are your personal preferences stylistically? Any personal favorites?

I have always been a huge fan of music gig posters as well as theatrical film one-sheets. However, as we are all well-aware, high quality studio-based film posters are a thing of the past. The amazing hand-drawn posters of the ’70s and ’80s (see Drew Struzan) and the sleek minimalist designs of the ’50s and ’60s (see Saul Bass) are long gone for mainstream films. Current studio posters simply communicate the celebrities that are associated with a film (via overly airbrushed head shots) and the true art of the film poster only can be seen with a handful of indie films each year, or through directors such as Quentin Tarantino or Wes Anderson who seem to be involved with the creation of their one-sheets.

However, a few years ago I was at an indie music festival (Pitchfork in Chicago) and they had a flatstock/poster area with about 50 designers. Even though it was music-based, many of the artists also had a few film pieces….and each was absolutely brilliant, towering in quality over mainstream one-sheets.

These images stuck with me, and the idea for the book was born. I had always been aware of fan art, but in the past five years underground film posters has tremendously improved in quality- and in quantity- as well. I looked through about 10,000 images before settling on the 200 included in the book.

In terms of favorites, I like both extremes. The sleekly-designed minimalist posters can be really quite genius. At the same time I was raised on Mad Magazines, comic books, Garbage Pail Kids, and absolutely adored the hand-drawn style of the ’80s (favorites included Better Off Dead, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Life of Brian, and Animal House). So I also have a huge soft spot for quality hand-drawn pieces.

Credit: Viktor Hertz / Sweden

The Renaissance of this “New Wave” of alternative movie posters is clearly indebted to- and influenced by- the great wave of post-war film graphic/poster art that emerged from Eastern Europe- most notably the great Polish film poster art movement of the 50’s-70’s. How much of this legacy is touched upon in your book?

With the book each artist typically gets two pages, and the left-hand page image visually coordinates with the right-hand image. The posters are supplemented with artist interviews (including their inspirations), and a good amount mentioned post-war graphics and Eastern European posters as heavy influences. It’s also quite evident in their work. For example, Sean Dailey of Verv Creative (Cleveland, Ohio) uses a propaganda poster-style with his pieces — which is really effective.

In researching the book I came across a decent number of images that I thought were smart, modern, fresh interpretations of classic films. Low and behold, however, many were actually done a few decades back in Poland in the poster art era that you mentioned. What’s old is new again.

Credit: Daniel Norris / UK

These astonishing posters lean heavily into retro-revivalist and minimalist stylings that prove so complementary to the new technological platforms that so easily and rapidly disseminate them (Tumblr, Pintrest, Facebook, Etsy, etc)- in your opinion, is this new trend often a case of the medium driving the message?

Is there really a true art underground anymore? Social media is leveling the playing field.

It’s pretty amazing, and even a bit overwhelming, that an artist can tweet or post an image, and within a few days the amount of people that fit into a football stadium may have seen it. Several images in the book have in upwards of 50,000 shares on Tumblr, for example. And with that comes freelance inquiries, and perhaps a career. Amazing.

One of the artists in the book (Federico Mancosu out of Italy) shared his alternative film poster for Django Unchained on Quentin Tarantino’s Facebook wall about a year ago. A week later Tarantino called asking to purchase the rights to the poster as a teaser for the film. Surreal. Another artist in the book (Rowan Stocks-Moore) creates “dark” versions of Disney posters. Disney caught wind and instead of getting upset they invited him to freelance for them. Forget seven degrees of separation- now everyone is just one click away.

Credit: Federico Mancosu

A dominant theme of the alternative/underground poster is the exploration of an obscure theme or memorable visual from the film- rendering the concept primarily accessible only to those “insiders” who have seen- and loved- the film for some time. From a marketing perspective, explain this tongue-in-cheek inversion of the inherent function of the film poster.

I love the insider posters. These are mostly for classic and cult films — movies that we all adore, which in my opinion ups the judgement level for the related alt film poster. Since we hold these movies in such high regard we also inherently judge new art associated with them to a bigger standard. So, when one of these insider posters really hits the mark, it circulates like wildfire on social media.

In my opinion studios should be snapping these up for Blu-ray or theatrical re-release treatment. They instantly bring you back to that “a-ha” moment in the film. That moment where you really get lost in the film. The escape scene in the The Shawshank Redemption, for example.

However, even within the minimalist sub-genre of alternative movie posters, each artist has his/her own twist to the pieces, as this book shows. Michael Whaite (UK), for example, creates minimalist designs as neon signs. It’s a brilliant angle.

Credit: Derek Chatwood / USA

Your book is refreshingly international- what countries are currently on the forefront of the best underground/alternative poster art? Any particular artists that we should be following?

The book includes 200 posters for 100 artists in 20 countries. The number of countries represented was actually a nice accident. I ranked 100 artists that I thought best represented the movement, both in terms of quality and uniqueness, and the list ended up including 20 different countries, including a few unexpected surprises (e.g., Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, etc.).

Overall the majority of designers come from the US, UK, Canada, Italy, Australia, Germany and Poland. Some artists (newer to the alt film poster world) that are really worth checking out include Travis Price, Chris Garofalo, and Joshua Gilbert.

I should also mention that I contacted 102 artists to be included in the book, and 100 agreed. Such a great group of motivated, eclectic, talented artists that share a passion for poster art and film. The book was a blast to piece together!

Portrait Art by Ian Glaubinger

When not collecting alternative movie posters or waxing poetic about 80’s vinyl cover art, Matthew can be found in Cleveland, Ohio, plotting his next deconstruction of the graphic arts. His follow-up, Alternative Movie Posters II: More Film Art from the Underground is currently available on Amazon.

Chojnacki launched 1984 Publishing in 2016 to bring premium hardbound art and gift books to coffee tables worldwide. Recent titles include Ad Nauseam: Newsprint Nightmares from the 1980s and Ghoulish: The Art of Gary Pullin.

Chojnacki has more than 20 years of business experience, and recently executive produced several documentaries, including 24x36: A Movie about Movie Posters and 30 Years of Garbage: The Garbage Pail Kids Story. Forthcoming titles include Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street, and the political music doc Beyond Barricades.

Visit his page at matthewchojnacki.com and on Facebook and Twitter.