The video revolution of the 1970s offered unprecedented access to the moving image for artists and performers. This Is Not a Dream explores the legacies of this revolution and its continued impact on contemporary art and performance. Charting a path across four decades of avant-garde experiment and radical escapism, This Is Not a Dream traces the influences of Andy Warhol, John Waters and Jack Smith to the perverted frontiers of YouTube and Chatroulette, taking in subverted talk shows and soap operas, streetwalker fashions and glittery magic penises along the way.
Dean Johnson, drag queen, rock star, LGBTQI activist, junkie, genius, escort then John Doe. How does someone so famous in New York die as an unknown in DC? This documentary explores the incredible highs and the crushing lows of Dean Johnson’s life and untimely death. Was it murder? Was it an accident? We may never know, but what is certain is that Dean and “the Big Johnson” changed New York City and all who knew him forever.
Largely ignored and left to their own devices, a group of unassuming teenagers in late 80s and early 90s Sioux Falls, South Dakota created their own culture, community, and economy. And when they moved out into the world at large, they brought what they learned along with them. I Really Get Into It: The Underage Architects of Sioux Falls Punk is a story about the tenacity and ingenuity of youth, finding and following your convictions, and how the kids you least expect often make the most noise. Shot on location in eight cities and assembled from dozens of hours of archival video and hundreds of photos, the documentary features interviews with Larry Livermore (Lookout. Records), Ian MacKaye (Fugazi), Mike Park (Skankin' Pickle), Rebecca Hanten (Cadillac Blindside), Terry Taylor (Hammerlord), and dozens of current and former members of the Sioux Falls all ages music scene.
The Los Angeles punk music scene circa 1980 is the focus of this film. With Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, Circle Jerks, Fear, Germs, and X.
When a group of young DIY artists in Santa Fe can’t find a door into the art world, they blow open an entirely new portal with their grit, passion, and tenacity. Within just a few short years – and with a little help from George R.R. Martin – this group called Meow Wolf ultimately hits a cultural nerve and garners massive, unexpected success with their exhibit, House of Eternal Return.
This documentary dismantles the black-and-white social stigma that has long been attached to the punk community and often shaped by narrow misperceptions that equate it with deviance. Through an empathetic approach, the documentary “Screams on the Streets” portrays the daily lives of punk groups, aiming to create space for public reflection so that identity is not used as a basis for discrimination against others. The message we seek to convey is simple yet deeply significant: remember that human rights are universal and cannot be limited by class, race, ethnicity, tribe, culture, appearance, or any other distinction. Our hope is to open new perspectives and highlight that human rights are not reserved for a select few, but belong to all people on this planet. Punk is not a crime.
In Medellín, Cuchas, a Queer punk band, challenges a scene that claims to be rebellious but rejects new forms of dissent. Through their music and daily lives, the documentary follows their journey of identity and resistance in an environment that makes their existence uncomfortable.
What drives us to keep going in a world that grows increasingly hostile toward our existence every day? Squirm Gallery, a DIY music venue, finds a way forward in a rapidly gentrifying Denver.
A documentary that explores the reality of the LGBTQIA+ community through the perspective of those who, excluded from their families of origin, have built new bonds and forms of belonging. At the center of the film is the House of Windowsen, an emerging presence in the Italian ballroom scene, made up of Gian, the overall father, Morgan Sasha, and Concetta. Following their lives between Milan, Rome, and Naples, the film weaves together personal experiences and shared journeys, offering a direct portrait of ballroom culture and the dynamics of a chosen family that is atypical and non-nuclear. It is a narrative that highlights identities, relationships, and the need to create a space in which to exist.
In the 1980s there was a punk band in Stockholm who put out one single, got torn apart by local music critics and went away. 35 years later they are contacted by a music label from New York interested in their music.
Lorraine Carter lives a quiet, contemptuous life in the mundane suburbs of Lincoln. She is restless, discontented and dreams of what once was and what could have been. Having once lived on the road, gigging as the lead singer in a punk band, Lorraine was a real rock star, or came close to being one. With the band's burgeoning dreams being cut short, and life sweeping her forward, Lorraine's life as a proud punk-rocker seemed over. Swapping punk for a nine-to-five, and the microphone for motherhood, Lorraine watched from the margins as her life sped by. Beaten, forgotten, and belittled by the world around her, Lorraine grows tempestuous. She yearns to reclaim her creative identity, to express herself and to fight for what she believes in. She prepares to come to terms with her past, to overcome her fears, and to take the stage once again. With a microphone in hand, she sings a simple phrase. Keep the faith, it’s all we’ve got.
"This Is What Trans Punk Looks Like" is a documentary about the transgender punk culture in Texas and the beauty of community. It features several interviews with trans individuals within the scene, talking about their childhood experiences, Texas' political climate, and what punk means to them.
The short documentary tells the story of a culture and arts space in Tampere. Between 2018 and 2023 the culture association Romu & Random operated at Satamakatu 3. The documentary preserves its cultural history, which technically began in 2014, and it looks, feels, smells and tastes just like the space in Satamakatu 3 did.
Growing Aside: A Math Rock Documentary
Marc with a C is the stage name of Orlando indie/DIY singer-songwriter Marc Sirdoreus and was formally a persona enacted on stage for over 20 years. This documentary covers their career using only filmed stage performances, interviews, and other video and audio releases published online by Marc or their audience. Made from a myriad of videos with view counts ranging from 15 to 30k, it chronicles their attempts to use music and lyrics to connect to and understand others, as well as their relationship to attention and performance as social media swallows up small artists to turn art into content.
A documentary that follows the band Carpool on the road as they release their acclaimed second album “My Life In Subtitles”
The same place, the same questionnaire, seven girls from generation Y, gathered for the same project: "Are you ready for porn?" Their weaknesses, their reactions, their attitude facing a camera... A closed door to enter the porn industry.
Post-Democracy Days follows a young journalist covering Donald Trump’s trial in New York City, where unexpected relationships form amid political spectacle, ambition, and a nation struggling with division.
A documentary filmed between 2016 - 2018 about the Boston DIY music scene, and part of the community that keeps it going.
London 1976: Between economic crises and the Silver Jubilee, something is brewing in the squats and basement clubs of West London: Punk. A promise, a new beginning. Punk meant self-empowerment, especially for the women in the scene. For the first time, women picked up guitar, bass and drums, formed bands and wrote their own songs.