With his suitcase packed, car gassed up, and everything he knows about independent film festivals tossed 
into a dumpster, our fearless editor gets ready to visit sunny Asbury Park, New Jersey to experience Troma Entertainment’s resurrection of what independent film-making is all about.
Forget Sundance. Utah sucks. Get ready for Tromadance.
Independent film.
Everyone knows what those words are supposed to mean when put together. They bring up the idea of films making it happen with bare bones budgets, film school staffs, and whatever camera someone got as a birthday gift. What the filmmakers lacked in finances, they tried to make up for with innovation; envelope pushing; blossoming talent.
Then many of the “Big 7” film studios saw a way to grab the audience that normally strayed from mainstream film, and incorporate them back into regular viewers. They set up satellite studios such as Focus Features, Warner Independent Pictures, and New Line Cinema. At the same time, independent film studios like Overture, Lions Gate, and Dimension Films were having success, and incorporating bigger budgets and A-List actors and actresses. The line between mainstream and independent became muddled, to say the least.
Many independent film festivals suffered because of it, or rather, became successful like the movies they 
began to feature. Trey Parker and Matt Stone portrayed it best in an episode of South Park, explaining that, these days, the most visual independent films are usually disingenuously independent, or just gay cowboys eating pudding.
Luckily, one crafty filmmaker took Parker’s satire to task: Lloyd Kaufman of Troma Entertainment. Throughout his career, Mr. Kaufman has spun the film industry on its head with classic cult films such as The Toxic Avenger series, Class of Nuke Em High, and Tromeo and Juliet. Using innovative storylines, an amazing sense of humor, and more latex than an S&M convention, Mr. Kaufman gave the public something to be entertained by without the luxury of a big movie-house budget. He even went as far to give other budding filmmakers their chance to shine in the limelight of cult cinema by bringing them into his studio.
And the public came. In more ways than one.
Now, for the 11th year running, Mr. Kaufman has brought the movie-viewing public Tromadance, an independent film festival focused on truly independent filmmaking. Relying on donations of time and money, Kaufman fathered Tromadance into an independent film festival that allowed filmmakers to submit their work without a necessary entrance fee. What’s more, the public doesn’t even need to pay to partake.
So what can I expect when I get to Troma’s event? Considering the studio’s release list, I can’t actually expect anything less than an amazingly unexpected experience, but here are a few things I can think of:
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Films from the unknown? Check.
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An after-party at a bowling party? Hell-Yes Check.
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Being accosted by some of the weirdest creatures to grace the silver screen? Check.
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Scantily-clad women being accosted by these same weird creatures, and hopefully accosting me? Check-Yes. They’re called
Tromettes.
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A ringleader more personable and available than Robert Redford and Robert De Niro combined? Check-Check-Lloyd-Check.
All of this, and who knows what else, should create an experience unlike any other in the realm of film festivals. But most importantly is the knowledge that here, in some deep, dark corner of the universe, the world of independent filming is still independent, and available for all to see. This is Tromadance.