- ''Letters to Dad'' (1979; 15 min.) Letters to Dad is a postmodern film that cuts across the norms of spectator pleasures as nineteen people look and talk directly to the viewer who becomes 'Dad'. At the end of the film, the filmmakers reveal that the actors have been reading actual portions of letters to Jim Jones that were written just before the mass suicide at Jonestown. The film is truly disturbing in its cruel manipulation of the unsuspecting viewer into the 'role' of Jim Jones. A litany of letters written to Jim Jones read by a cast of artists and musicians. staring John Ahearn, Ida Appelbroog, Beth B, Scott B, Don Christenson, Ellen Cooper, Vivienne Dick, Peter Grass, Sally Grass, Laura Kennedy, Christof Kohlhofer, Arto Lindsay, Tom Otterness, Pat Place, Bill Rice, Ulle Rimkus, Terry Roberson, Chiara Smith, Robert Smith.
- ''The Offenders'' (1980; 90 min.) Hailed as a "punk melodrama," this feature started out as a serial and was originally shown at the popular New York City punk club Max's Kansas City. The homemade saga begins when Young Turks abduct performer Adele Bertei and her dad. starring Pat Place, John Lurie, Bradley Field, Lydia Lunch, Diego Cortez, Judy Nylon
- ''The Trap Door'' (1981; 70 min.) This experimental drama comes from the avant-garde team Scott B. and Beth B. and is their last film made on Super-8 film. It is the story of a jobless man's attempt to find stability in his life. His life is a nightmare of darkness and oppression and during his journey, the man encounters an assortment of strange, intensely self-absorbed characters. The tale culminates with the hapless man being knocked in the head during a mugging.
- ''The Vortex'' (1983; 90 min.) Scott B and Beth B, successful makers of short, experimental films made The Vortex an attempt at a "camp" film with a pessimistic "noirish" atmosphere. The detective Lunch (Lydia Lunch, a popular underground musician and poet) investigates a band of corporate businessman who seek government defense contracts through real "corporate wars" and the manipulation of politicians. Though a bit confusing, this film does have an excellent performance by Lunch, as the detective. staring James Russo, Lydia Lunch, William Rice, Ann Magnuson, Bill Corsair
Two Small Body - Beth B 1993 Trailer
ERIC MITCHELL
- ''Kidnapped'' (1978; 60 min.) Mitchell's first film, a stark unedited recreation of Andy Warhol's Vinyl, this super-8 film purports to be the story of bored terrorists who kidnap a businessman. Stars Mitchell, Anya Phillips, Patti Astor and Duncan Smith among a crowd of hip poseurs talking sex, manners and politics. A classic look at the No Wave ennui ideal. staring Patti Astor, Anya Phillips and Duncan Smith
- ''Red Italy'' (1979) Second feature film by the French-born director is a Bertolucci-style story of a bored, rich woman looking for romance and adventure. She meets an American G.I., dumps him, then falls for a Communist worker. staring Patti Astor, Rene Ricard, James Nares, Mitchell himself and a band consisting of the likes of John Lurie (of the Lounge Lizards) and Arto Lindsay (of the band DNA) playing a cool, ragged cover of Gene Vincent’s “Be Bop a Lula”.
- ''Underground USA'' (1980) The "underground" of the title refers not to crime but to the half-hidden world of two-bit hustlers, "artistic" poseurs, aberrant lifestyles and shattered dreams. Small-time Manhattan opportunist Eric Mitchell latches onto Patti Astor, a once-popular movie star fallen into penury. He briefly lifts her spirits, but in the final analysis betrays her. Astor sorrowfully decides that she'd rather not live any longer. Lensed in 16 millimeter by producer/ director/ star Eric Mitchell. staring Patti Astor, Eric Mitchell, Rene Ricard, Tom Wright, Jackie Curtis, Cookie Mueller, Taylor Mead, Duncan Smith, Steve Mass, Terry Toye, John Laurie
- ''The Way It Is'' (1982) staring Steve Buschemi and Vincent Gallo
JAMES NARES he played guitar with Contortions and Del-Byzanteens (with Jim Jarmusch)
- ''Rome 78'' (1978; 60 min.)
Before Bob Guccione's Caligula there was this movie, a low rent costume drama starring David McDermott as Caligula, Eric Mitchell, Lydia Lunch, and notorious socialite-philosopher Anya Phillips as the Queen of Sheba. Shot in color Super-8, this is a spicy pic, acclaimed a classic of the "New Cinema" of underground filmmakers at the time. Stately camera, lush color by British abstract painter. Caligula set in a shabby Manhattan apartment, proposes an analogy between ancient Rome and modern America as cultural empires. 90 min.
- ''No Japs at My Funeral'' (1980; 60 min.) Documentary about the war in Northern Ireland and politics from the point of view of an ex-IRA bomber
- ''Waiting for the Wind '' (1981; 7 min.) VIVIENNE DICK
- ''She Had Her Gun All Ready'' (1978; 28 min.) Set in the Lower East Side, Dick’s short film explores the unequal power dynamic between two people (Pat Place and Lydia Lunch), and the internal conflict between one’s repressive and libidinal sides.
- ''Guerrillere Talks'' (1978; 28 min.) The subjects include o.a. Pat Place, Anya Phillips and Adele Bertei [all The Contortions], Ikue Mori [DNA] as well as Lydia Lunch. The women talk, read letters, play pinball, while the camera zooms in and out using oblique framing.
- ''Staten Island'' (1978; 5 min.)
Pat Place plays a creature who lives in an old abandoned barge on a rubbish strewn beach. The mood is post-apocalyptic and the music of Telstar mixed with domestic kitchen clatter.
- ''Beauty Becomes The Beast'' (1979; 40 min.)- ''Liberty's Booty'' (1980; 47 min.)
CINEMA OF TRANSGRESSION
CASANDRA STARK
Italian interview about Casandra Stark movie 'Death of an Arab woman'
TOMMY TURNER and David WOJNAROWICZ
- ''Where Evil Dwells'' (The Trailer) (1986; 34 min.)
Evil is a collaboration between filmmaker Turner and the late artist/writer David Wojnarowicz, based on the infamous "Satan Teen" Ricky Kasso, who killed himself in jail after he and a friend had been accused of murdering another boy in a satanic ritual in Long Island, N.Y. This trailer, all that remains of the feature destroyed in a fire, stars Wojnarowicz, Turner, Scott Werner, Joe Coleman, Jack Nantz, Baby Gregor, Rockets Redglare, Richard Klemann, Charlotte Webb, Lung Leg, Devil Doodie;
music by Jim Thirwell & Wiseblood
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