The El Duce Tapes

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🎙️ EPISODE 414: 03.04.22 The following is a part of the RODNEY ASCHER director focus series This one was such a pleasant surprise. I'm not sure I could have stomached a boilerplate, straight down the middle documentary about Eldon "El Duce" Hoke. He is as vile, practically speaking, as his story is sad. The thought of having to watch some Dave Grohl Lite punker dutifully wax poetic about the guy (I'm assuming they wouldn't have been able to get Grohl himself, though that's maybe a poor assumption). Instead, what this film is — and it's all right there in the title, folks — is the reclamation project of a series of VHS tapes from the early 90s. Now, that alone doesn't mean much. The tapes could have all been garbage. But not only are they are simply "not garbage," they are engaging, thorough and raw.

Shot, and subsequently abandoned for close to there decades, by an aspiring filmmaker and artist in his own right, Ryan Sexton (of the art punk band The Consumers), the tapes are the real deal. Not only do they capture Eldon and the band (infamous if not too well known shock rockers, Mentors) in glorious unscripted moments, on stage and off, but Sexton filmed numerous interviews with deep and interesting questions. Even in the moment, he was fixated on the central query: was this (ultra-offensive act) a schtick, a put-on?

That's one side of the coin, and arguably the more important part, but what Rodney Ascher and co-director/editor David Lawrence do with the footage, and what they choose to add, is equally impressive. An Ascher staple at this point, the film is peppered with mixed media and found footage, not to mention archival content (coverage of the famous Tipper Gore obscenity senate hearings, for example). Even though the surviving members of the band are still kicking the can on the Mentors name to this very day, nothing filmed after the death of El Duce is included here. There's no obligatory "where are they now," and man was that refreshing.

That's been my biggest takeaway from running through Ascher's four-feature filmography: he is truly trying to buck convention in a cinematic genre that has grown stale. I cant wait to see where he goes next.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 413 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 415 ⫸

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The El Duce Tapes, a 2019 American documentary film by Rodney Ascher, presents a long, hard look at Eldon "El Duce" Hoke, the front-man of the controversial '90s shock metal band The Mentors. It was released on April 26, 2019.