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THE EL DUCE TAPES

By Rodney ASCHER, David LAWRENCE, Ryan SEXTON

MONODUO FILMS - as SALES All rights, World

Documentary - Completed 2019

Following ROOM 237 and THE NIGHTMARE, inventive documentarian Rodney Ascher returns with a doc about Eldon “El Duce” Hoke, the misogynistic and all-around abhorrent front-man of the controversial ’90s shock metal band The Mentors.

Festivals
& Awards

BFI London FF 2019

HotDocs 2019

- Year of production
- 2019
- Genres
- Documentary, Art - Culture, Horror
- Countries
- USA
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Duration
- 104 mn
- Director(s)
- Rodney ASCHER, David LAWRENCE, Ryan SEXTON
- Cast
- El DUCE, Jerry SPRINGER
- Producer(s)
- Tim KIRK
- Synopsis
- A wilfully offensive band, The Mentors gained infamy for performing in black executioner hoods and spewing cartoonishly racist, homophobic and misogynistic lyrics in the 1980s and ‘90s—but was their use of shock meant to propagate hate or confront it? Denounced by the US Senate, reviled on The Jerry Springer Show and unforgettable in Kurt & Courtney, The Mentors' lead singer, El Duce, occupied a brief zeitgeist moment. Ryan Sexton, an actor with roles on General Hospital and in local commercials, began to document El Duce's day-to-day life at this notorious peak. And it's his recovered VHS footage from 25 years ago that directors David Lawrence and Rodney Ascher sift through here to discover who El Duce really was. How much of his repellent persona was genuine? What does The Mentors' controversial output mean to pop culture and social commentary? And what role does parody, perversion and provocation play in challenging our ideas about art, morality and censorship? What begins as a “dare you to look away” character study evolves into a timely societal indictment, further cementing director Rodey Ascher (Room 237, The Nightmare) as a singular provocateur in the documentary field.

THE EL DUCE TAPES

Festivals& Awards

Festivals
& Awards