Shoot all night, then off to shul

HANC 12th-grader directs his first film

By Michael Orbach

Jordan David Lifshitz, known as JD to family and friends, has the usual worries of a 17-year-old in Lawrence: school, girls and parents. He also has “Killed on the Fourth of July,” the movie he directed over the summer.

“I’m like a little, fat, Jewish Martin Scorsese,” Lifshitz joked in the library of the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County High School in Uniondale.  He was delighted that the interview was taking place during economics class, his least favorite time of day. He apologized in advance for possibly rambling; he’d slept just three hours the night before while in the middle of research about a serial killer in America — a subject that often keeps him up at night.

An odd thought for someone who may be America’s youngest horror film director: JD said he’s still scared to send back food in restaurants.  He’s afraid a cook might get fired and come after his family.

JD shot “Killed on the Fourth of July” over the summer with a group of friends. His debut film used local locations, including a home in Hewlett Bay Park, Supersol (after hours) and the Adventurers Family Entertainment Center near Coney Island (formerly known as the Nellie Bly Amusement Park). The movie is a slasher flick that tells the story of Karl Chane, a deformed carnival worker  befriended by a young girl named Kassidy. Kassidy’s father finds out about the friendship, he gets Chane fired, and Chane decides to take his revenge on the Kassidy family. In true horror film tradition, Kassidy’s high-school-aged sister just happens to be hosting a house party that night. The film even has a cameo from horror-film pioneer Lloyd Kaufman.

JD described his movie as equal parts horror and comedy.

“It’s kind of a homage to the horror films of the eighties, and it’s a homage to the comedies of the eighties,” JD explained, dropping references to the film Porky’s and old MGM horrors. The villain’s last name, Chane, is a reference to horror actor Lon Chaney.

JD has an earnest enthusiasm about all things related to film. Mid-interview he popped open his MacBook to show a clip from “Killed on the Fourth of July” — one in which a character has a messy run-in with a blender. JD is a lifelong horror and film buff; he cites Hitchcock as his favorite director and recalled seeing Tim Burton’s second Batman film when he was two years old.

“I’ve been reading Stephen King since the first grade and understanding it since the fifth,” he said.

JD traces his own beginning in the film industry to when he read an article in the cult horror magazine Fangoria; he was thirteen. In the article, Eli Roth, director of horror films and most recently an actor in “Inglourious Basterds,” said that he always answered his MySpace messages. JD shot Roth an email and later that day Roth responded in a letter that discussed his own struggles in the film industry.

“It just inspired me,” JD said. “He was telling me about his bar mitzvah. I was touched.”

Later that year, JD sent a fan letter to Tim Sullivan, producer of “Detroit Rock City” and director of “2001 Maniacs.” Sullivan invited JD to the premier of his latest movie, “Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror.” After a lengthy negotiation with his parents that included one birthday present and no fewer than eight Chanukah gifts, JD’s parents agreed. (His Facebook page shows him standing next to Snoop Dogg in a photo orchestrated by Sullivan who told the reticent Mr. Dogg that JD was at the premiere as part of his wish from the Make-a-Wish Foundation).

Tim Sullivan, who was filming a reality show for VH1 in California, said JD was a “nudge in the most positive way.”

“Thanks to the magic of the internet, the barrier between artist and audience has been broken down and I think JD has made an art form out of that broken-down barrier. There’s nobody in my realm of fellow horror film directors who hasn’t heard of him, since at one point he has contacted us all on Myspace and Facebook. If you look up tenacity in the dictionary it would say JD Lifshitz,” said Sullivan.

JD spent the next two summers in film school and networking. There he became close with Josh Adam, another film student, and they made a pact to do a film. JD wrote the 62-page script last November and began sending it around.

“I said come this summer, July 28, we’re directing our first film whether we have $20 or $20,000. Film school won’t teach us this. It was a pipe dream,” JD recalled.

JD put in $5,000 of his bar mitzvah money and managed to raise an additional $50,000 by selling shares of the film to investors. Sullivan liked the script and, taken by JD’s enthusiasm, signed on as a producer.

“That kid has nudged his way into Hollywood and luckily he has the talent to back it up,” explained Sullivan, before quipping that JD wasn’t yet a little fat Jewish Martin Scorsese.

“More like a little fat Jewish Wes Craven,” he said.

Through another friend, JD managed to sign one of the film’s leads, Adam Scarimbolo, a well-regarded actor in a number of independent films. Josh donned three pounds of latex to play the deformed Chane. Since JD was too young to sign checks at the time of the filming, his parents did it for him. JD spent virtually every night of the summer except Fridays, from six in the evening to six in the morning, working on the film. He described the two months as the most intense period of his life. In addition to directing, JD also played a part in the film, Cody, (“I didn’t want to hire another fat actor to do it,” JD explained. “I just decided it would be too expensive”) who meets a particularly grisly end.

“I’d go to Shacharis covered in blood, with nails in me, and then I’d pass out,” he said.

The film’s trailer premiered at New Beverly Cinema, a theater in Los Angeles owned by Quentin Tarantino, which JD used to frequent as a patron. For JD, horror movies are a privileged art form, and he noted that Stephen Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese all did their early work in the genre.

“Horror movies are a reflection of what’s going on. During Vietnam we had the best horror movies. “The Blair Witch Project” is the fear of digging too deep; “Hostel” is a brilliant movie about how Americans go to other countries and act like idiots; “Cabin Fever” is a comment on the AIDS epidemic. Horror movies are some of the smartest movies. For a comedy to be good, it has to have a funny actor. A romance needs to be sweet. For a good horror movie to work, [like] “The Shining,” everything little needs to be in place — the score, the atmosphere, direction, writing, acting — to a tee, to scare you. “Rosemary’s Baby” is harder to make than “The Departed.”

His own film isn’t meant to get viewers too down — he described it as “Looney Tunes” violence with real people.

“I just want people to have a good time. If I wanted to feel depressed, I can watch the news. “Saving Private Ryan” is more disturbing than all the “Saw” films combined, because it’s someone you know. I try to put as much character development as I can into a film that’s titled “Killed on the Fourth of July,” he said with a laugh.

As an Orthodox Jew, JD says he doesn’t see a contradiction between his profession and his religion.

“I went to minyan every day while we were shooting the movie. I don’t think I missed a day. That’s more than I can say for kids who went to camp or had 9-5 jobs,” JD maintained. “I acknowledge the fact that even me making movies is a miracle, people giving me money, the fact that I have Tim, the fact that I have these friends, it’s thanks to G-d.”

He even tries not to discuss the business of filmmaking on Shabbat, though his chosen career has led him into some conflict with his rebbeim.

“They try to tell you that cinema is just a bad thing; that’s not a true thing,” JD said. “Leni Riefenstahl” — the German film director behind the Nazi-era “Triumph of the Will” — “After the war was over, she was put on trial for crimes against humanity. How could someone who wasn’t a murderer be put on trial with Goebbels and Goring? How can you even say them in the same sentence? Film is the best way to reach people. Kids won’t listen to their teachers; most kids until they’re older won’t listen to their parents, but they always emulate what they see on TV.”

“It’s a universal escape,” he said, then cited the movie “Pulp Fiction,” explaining, “It’s an incredibly spiritual movie. People can find G-d. Even the lowliest, they can change their lives around. Once you have people watching you can teach them things they never think about. It’s amazing.”

JD is slowly becoming used to the life of a teenage film director, balancing studies and homework with Hollywood. He is currently at work on his next screenplay, a dark romantic comedy, and he plans to learn in Israel next year. Last month he was interviewed by Fangoria magazine. “What’s great about JD is he already speaks with the confidence and assurance of a filmmaker who knows what we wants and knows how to articulate it,” the magazine wrote.

After the article ran, JD received his first fan letter from a kid his own age. He wrote him back immediately.

“It was like the cheesiest kind of message,” he said, amazed. “It was me trying to be like Eli [Roth]. Eli did something that took him five minutes to do - a message telling me to keep on fighting - and you don’t even understand how much it did. You can take five minutes and help change someone’s way of thinking. It’s a crazy thought.”

Questions or comments? Contact Michael Orbach at morbach@thejewishstar.com