The only surprising thing about a documentary tracing the influence and career of Roger Corman is that it wasn't done sooner.

Any cineaste worth his or her salt can reel off a host of big names at the top of the industry who got their start at the behest of the notorious schlock peddler, and many of them are on hand to talk about their starts with the man himself and the invaluable boost they gave his career.

It unfolds as you expect, talking about his start in the movie business, his infamous cost cutting and time saving and how it made him to industry figurehead for quick and cheap.

What's interesting is that once upon a time, before the Tarantino effect made movies of all kinds cool, he was one of the many red-headed stepchildren of an industry that saw itself as prestigious and artistic. Along with the slasher genre, the video nasty movement, the straight to video erotic thriller and countless others, nobody who stood on stage at the Oscars once upon a time wanted to admit Corman or his devoted audience existed.

How ironic then that he'd accept a special award from the Academy decades later for the outsized influence he had on the industry, one he acknowledged with grace and gratitude. Like someone in the film says, he never seemed liked a fast talking producer of trashy movies – he comes across as a mild mannered suburban insurance broker.

If you're a devoted enough film fan you know most of what's going to be in the film after the articles you've read about Corman's impact or the big names that got their first break with American International Pictures or New World Pictures about him.

But there's plenty I didn't know. For one, he offered distribution to some of the most feted European directors of the 1960s like Truffaut and Fellini, at a time when US audiences weren't the least bit interested – oldies were probably still looking for MGM musical romps and Cary Grant romantic dramas whereas the burgeoning teenage demographic wanted drive in-style fare; antisocial bikers, monsters that carried away damsels, the gothic horror adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe's oeuvre, etc.

Second – and this was something I'd never considered despite how much sense it makes in hindsight – is how much the seismic arrival of Star Wars affected Corman's business model. The film even has archival footage of him describing it as ‘a threat', because suddenly the movies not just about monsters and aliens but those that appealed to kids were conquering Hollywood, genres and styles he'd had all to himself until then.

I was aware of movies Corman's been behind that played in the VOD/streaming era that were every bit as terrible as his camp classics from the 60s and 70s, albeit with shoddy CGI instead of shoddy makeup effects, but he'd well and truly slowed down by then.

It's full of comments and reminiscences from Corman proteges (Joe Dante, Jack Nicholson) but although some are notably absent (James Cameron, Nic Roeg), it's a worthy celebration of a figure that still casts a long shadow.