You know that old chestnut they have in Hollywood? The one that goes something like, “Why make one TV movie about Amy Fisher, when you could just as easily make three?” It’s definitely out there, I think. Hence, when Fisher’s affair with Joey Buttafuoco exploded in the news in 1992, all three major networks saw fit to make their own movie about it, giving Alyssa Milano, Drew Barrymore, and Nöelle Parker each a chance to try their hand at playing America’s favorite gun-wielding teenager.
The natural thing to do, then, is splice all this archival footage together into one Amy Fisher 20th anniversary super-movie, which is exactly what director Dan Kapelovitz has done with Triple Fisher: Lethal Lolitas of Long Island, screening tonight at Videology. We caught up with him before the East Coast Premiere of what is being billed by some as “the Rashomon of found footage cinema” to find out why now, why Amy.
“I had the idea about 20 years ago, when the made-for-TV movies first aired,” Kapelovitz said via email. “It would have been a nightmare to edit the film back then because I wouldn’t have had access to a digital editing system, and would have had to edit the film using VCRs.”