Revisit the Work of George A. Romero or See Industrial Decline Across the Country With These Two Books
"Raising the Dead: The Work of George A. Romero" and "Lazarus" are this month's book recommendations.
“Raising the Dead: The Work of George A. Romero”
Adam Charles Hart
Oxford University Press, $39.95
The filmmaker George A. Romero is a legend in the movie business as well as a beloved local fixture. Romero’s classic 1968 chiller “Night of the Living Dead” was a landmark for independent cinema as well as the horror genre.
His follow-up “Dawn of the Dead,” shot almost entirely in the Monroeville Mall, was so successful that it put Pittsburgh on the map as The Zombie Capital of the World.
Scholar and archivist Adam Charles Hart’s “Raising the Dead: The Work of George A. Romero” offers a very deep dive into Romero’s movies and unrealized film projects. In researching this book, Hart discovered not just a great number of Romero’s horror projects but also goofy comedies, children’s movies, musicals, talky dramas and an X-rated Frankenstein spoof called “Peterstein.”
Hart provides the fullest portrait yet of Romero as a restless creative artist who was eager to push his own boundaries as a writer and director into new territories. Hart’s exuberance for his subject sweeps the reader up with tantalizing glimpses of the movies that could have been had Romero been able to get the backing for his many dream projects. As Hart writes, “Romero was a pioneer in low-budget independent filmmaking with truly world-shaking successes, but piecing together financing was a constant struggle — a struggle that was, it must be emphasized, mostly unsuccessful.” The book is a must-read for horror fans but should captivate movie buffs of all stripes.
“Lazarus”
Jason Baldinger
OAC Books, $20
Pittsburgh-based writer Jason Baldinger is best known for his peripatetic poetry depicting industrial decline across the country and the small towns most affected by the changing economy. “Lazarus,” a stunning collection of Baldinger’s photography, is much more than a companion piece to his poems — these photos are a stark portrait of the Rust Belt-Appalachian nexus.
In his particular snapshot poetics, an ingenious use of the reflections captured by storefront windows, Baldinger’s work achieves a depth of field as well as a succinct commentary on our current political and economic reality.
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