Mario Cuzic used a video camera to face the question that keeps many expat English teachers up at night: What am I going to do before I head back home? His answer, "Garage Rockin' Craze," is a documentary on the history of Japan's underground garage rock scene that has nurtured internationally renowned bands including The 5.6.7.8's, Guitar Wolf and Teengenerate.
A Canadian national of Croatian descent, 43-year-old Cuzic came to Japan to teach English in 1999. Following a brief bout documenting Croatian MMA fighters for his ancestral homeland, he met Cyril Roy, one of the stars of Gaspar Noe's psychedelic 2009 film "Enter the Void." Roy pushed Cuzic into the underground garage rock music scene and a year later the two made "The Swap," a short feature focusing on local bands, and from that point Cuzic was hooked.
In 2010 he started filming live music videos — there are more than 80 on his YouTube channel — and then he met B.B. Clarke, a 29-year-old American whose knowledge of the scene and Japanese language chops helped give story and structure to Cuzic's passion project.
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