2004 Great Lakes Film Fest

Join us for our Friday and Saturday Midnight Madness !

Screenings with the legendary Bill Hinzman star of the original "Night of the Living Dead" and "Flesheater"!

Bill Hinzman, born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has produced motion pictures since 1961 and is an award winning cinematographer who has worked with such prominent directors as George A. Romero, Tom Holland, Chris McIntyre and John A. Russo. With over 40 years of production experience to his credit, Bill has worked with several superstars including Orson Welles, Stephen King, Pat Morita, Terry Bradshaw and Linda Gray to name but a few. With his role as the first zombie in "The Night of the Living Dead", Bill set the standard for horror movie zombie parts. A graduate of the New York Institute of Photography, Bill has lectured on the aspects of film making and cinematography/production values of feature films and video.

In 1961 Bill joined George Romero at The Latent Image, Inc., in Pittsburgh as lightning director and still photographer. In 1970 he was promoted to director of photography and production manager. Media credits at The Latent Image include numerous TV commercials, industrial and several feature length productions, including the original "Night of the Living Dead",( in which he also served as an investor, still photographer, lighting technician, assistant camera man and actor); for "Jack's Wife" (1971), Bill was once again an actor and assistant camera/second unit camera man. The Latent Image's fourth film, 1974's "The Crazies", had Hinzman as the director of photography, camera operator and second unit director. Other productions include a series of television documentaries through Laurel Tape and Film, such as the O.J. Simpson special "Juice on the Loose", which aired on ABC in 1974 and the Franco Harris and Willie Stargell specials.

In 1974, Bill also formed Mini Productions, Inc., and DBA Producers Service Center, Inc., an educational media production house. As vice president and creative director, he served as producer/director and cinematographer on numerous educational, industrial and commercial films and video tapes. Several of the award winning educational and documentary films to his credit include:

"When You Grow Up", an award winning series of fifteen, ten minute, educational films on career awareness, distributed by Zerox Educational Films and Warner Cable.

"Heads to Tails", a twenty-eight minute film showing the general procedures of a modern film lab, which was distributed nationally to film schools.

"On the Side of Life", a thirty minute documentary on the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution, narrated by Orson Welles.

Other productions include a series of police training and health care films.

Hinzman also served as Director of Photography for sequences shot at "Sea World of Ohio" for an NBC special starring Bill Daly and Kate Ballard.

Bill is currently President of Hinzman Productions, which produces educational, feature films, commercials and sports documentaries for teams such as the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

It is, however, his role as the first zombie in 1968's "Night of the Living Dead" that has cemented, for all time, Hinzman's place in horror film history.

We are honored to have Mr. Hinzman as our guest at this year's Great Lakes Film Festival, and we hope you can join us for our Midnight Madness screenings both nights.

Friday, see Hinzman's second go-round as a zombie in 1988's "Flesheater" ("He lived, he died, he's back...and he's hungry!"). Saturday, see the movie that started it all! The original, uncut, "Night of the Living Dead" with a very special Q & A session with actor Bill Hinzman!

Both shows begin at midnight. Get there early!

Stay scared...