Stan Lee and Comic-Con’s Favorite Doc ‘Superheroes’ Has DVD Release

Commercial director Michael Barnett swoops in

with real-life costumed crime fighters

By Darrah Le Montre

(HOLLYWOOD, CA) HOLLYWOOD TODAY – 11/17/11 – “I would be a little worried about somebody with no real superpower, who puts on a costume, and then runs around challenging criminals,” said comic book pillar Stan Lee about a band of activists that has sprung up to take the law into their own gloved hands.  “Real life superheroes” are anywhere from 18 to 62 years old, run the gamut of ethnicities and backgrounds and often have no real training to fight crime.  But, captured in the award-winning Barnett documentary “Superheroes,” whose DVD hit shelves this week they appear to be the next big thing.

“The film touches on a zeitgeist-y moment.  I think we’re in a very troubled time right now as a society,” Director Barnett says, in a Hollywood Today exclusive.

“Occupy Wall Street is a very power to the people movement.  People are fed up and they feel like they don’t have control and they don’t have a voice.  And they’re trying to create one.  This movement [of real life superheroes] is so on par with that.  Though a little more eccentric, it is a protest,” he asserts.

HBO saved the day, buying the self-funded Comic-Con Indie Film Fest winner, whose budget is yet unreleased, and it debuted on the small screen in October.  The doc reflects a private community that is now under international spotlight.  “Superheroes” is enjoying a limited theatrical release as part of Slamdance On The Road.

Shot over 15 months, this lauded and still slyly hip documentary shines a well-balanced light on a growing phenomenon.  People who are self sacrificing, but not martyrs; unassuming, but politically-conscious; proactive, without reward seeking.

During the day, RLSH are security guards, teachers, tattoo artists and stay-at-home dads.  But, at night, not unlike Clark Kent’s famous transition into Superman, these young men and women transform into “Dark Guardian,” “Amazonia,” “Mr. Xtreme,” “Zimmer,” and “T.S.A.F” – which stands for The Silenced And Forgotten, and belongs to one of the three female superheroes represented in the doc.

Their real identities remain under wraps, as do their faces.  Wearing sunglasses, baseball caps, head scarves and then, of course, their masks (with the exception of Zimmer, an out gay New Yorker for whom a mask would be too much like crawling back into the closet)none of the crime fighters reveal their true selves.  And who they are during bank hours is less important – sometimes to them – then who they are after dark.

In 1964, 28-year-old Catherine “Kitty” Genovese was stabbed multiple times in the New York neighborhood of Qeens, and left to die.  She was brutally assaulted – physically and sexually – and left to bleed out.  A number of neighbors saw or heard the attack in progress – and did nothing.  They simply “didn’t want to get involved,” one witness said.

Kitty’s death made international headlines.  In our own backyard, our most defeatist trait was killing women.  Apathy.

The memory of Genovese’s death, and what is now termed “the bystander effect,” served as a call to arms for Mr. Xtreme, a San Diego superhero and a central figure in the film.  In a Hollywood Today exclusive, he says, “Genovese is an icon.  There’s a lot of Kitty Genovese’s out there and whether male or female, young or old, I see this happening all the time.  It gets us fired up and outraged.”

A mentor for youth and would-be superheroes, he tells Hollywood Today, “We want to show young people an alternative to gangs, drugs and the criminal life.  Saving a life is the most rewarding part of being a real life superhero.  And inspiring people.”

The 35-year-old activist and founder of The Xtreme Justice League, who has a working relationship with police, was recently recognized as a key tool in the capture of the Chula Vista Groper – a man who, for five years, groped and possibly sexually assaulted women in the area.

San Diego Deputy Mayor Rudy Ramirez commended Mr. Xtreme’s help in spreading public awareness.  Ramirez said, “The work that Mr. Xtreme has done with posting the fliers certainly contributed to…the capture of the Chula Vista Groper.”

While some dismiss these superheroes as just outfitted danger seekers, the truth is, many are soldiers for the homeless population in their neighborhood.  “Zeta Kits” –  Ziplock bags filled with twenty-dollars worth of ‘must-haves’ like deodorant, socks, toilet paper and lip balm, are purchased out of pocket, and passed out by Portland power couple Zetaman and Apocalypse Meow.  Irony beware, during Comic-Con, while caped wannabe’s paraded their latest and greatest, the RLSH population banded together on the streets in shady intersections, helping the down and out improve their luck.

If after-dark street patrolling and handmade weaponry intrigues you, there are a number of online forums (such as reallifesuperheroes.org) where you and I can engage with these vigilantes with a golden heart.  They’ve even managed to win over Stan Lee, who, by film’s end, wished them the best.

“I admire their courage.  I admire their objectives.   Whatever they’re doing, I just hope they’re successful at it,” Lee imparts, with his trademark smile.

SUPERHEROES, the movie is playing in select theatres nationwide and on HBO.

Superheroes DVD hit stores November 15^th.

Find out more at: www.superheroesthemovie.com