The true-life story of Darby Crash, who became an L.A. punk icon with his band The Germs. Along with Lorna Doom, Pat Smear, and Don Bolles, Darby Crash completely transformed the L.A. punk scene, while sacrificing everyone he loved, his career, and ultimately his life.
The worlds of a former neo-Nazi and the gay victim of his senseless hate crime attack collide by chance 25 years after the incident that dramatically shaped both of their lives. They proceed to embark on a journey of forgiveness that challenges both to grapple with their beliefs and fears, eventually leading to an improbable collaboration...and friendship.
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.
Pivotal
"The 90s Sucked The first Time Around" ft. UNBROKEN and SWING KIDS. Filmed May 2009 in Southern California. A Leg Lifters production.
Pig heads, intestines, megaphones: all these and more have been thrown into crowds of loyal fans following the influential punk band THE STALIN or any of number of Michiro Endo's other bands since 1980. Taking a step in front of the camera, however, Endo offers a very different kind of encounter in this inspiring self-portrait. "Mother, I've Pretty Much Forgotten Your Face" follows the artist, a native of Nihonmatsu, Fukushima, on the 2011 nationwide solo tour celebrating his 60th birthday, which was interrupted by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Traveling, performing and talking with fellow musicians and activists, Endo reflects on the past and future of Fukushima, the legacy of Hiroshima, his upbringing and his feelings about his mother, communicated in the song from which the documentary is named.
Force Attack 2009
For over 25 years, the legendary band Stevie Stiletto were punk rock stalwarts, yet never got the national recognition they deserved. After dozens of releases, thousands of shows, hundreds of brushes with the law, countless line-up changes and one terminally ill diagnosis, the band finally gets their due with this two-hour, in-depth documentary. Featuring interviews with members of the band (past and present), road crew, producers, family, friends and fans, My Life is Great covers the entirety of their storied career. Complete with live footage from the last three decades, this film is a document of a band that never got a break, never gave a damn, and never sold out.
A troubled but talented Los Angeles punk frontman becomes convinced that his entire career is the result of demonic possession.
Bruce Macdonald follows punk bank Hard Core Logo on a harrowing last-gasp reunion tour throughout Western Canada. As magnetic lead-singer Joe Dick holds the whole magilla together through sheer force of will, all the tensions and pitfalls of life on the road come bubbling to the surface.
Made for Italian national television, Ellis Donda’s Il Corpo Rubato (The Stolen Body) is an experimental documentary on psychoanalisis in 70s/80s Italy, its analytical practices and forms of suggestion.
Outlawed: A Punk Rock Uprising in the Basque Country
Influenced by early punk and rock bands such as MC5, Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Stooges and The Heartbreakers as well as heavier bands such as Venom, Blue Cheer and Motorhead the bands debut album - Hellacopters have made quite a name for themselves in Europe and Australia
The post-70’s explosion of independent music in America has many traceable roots, each with a compelling story. One of its most significant has never been told until now. Drawing on never-before-seen archival footage, in-depth-interviews with musicians and producers, and a mighty soundtrack, THE SMART STUDIOS STORY reveals the pivotal Midwest link to the global rise of 1990's Alternative Rock and the unassuming Madison, Wisconsin recording studio at its center. If you’ve ever been touched by the music of Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage, L7 or their peers, you’ve been touched by the music created at Smart Studios, the legendary recording facility founded by Butch Vig and Steve Marker.
Donal MacIntyre investigates the secretive world of white power music and how the money made helps fund far right political organizations in many countries, including the British National Party in the UK. In this documentary, the crew gained access to the men and women behind one of the most disturbing musical movements. It reveals how British neo-Nazis and skinheads plan to launch 'Project School-Yard' in Britain after a similar scheme was tried out in the United States. In the UK, the team follows one of the most infamous British white-power bands, Whitelaw, as they prepare for one of the biggest gigs of their career. The band are filmed on stage, with riot police surrounding the venue, performing as the forces of law and order move in to shut down their hate-filled act. The film also contains shocking images of hate rock concerts in the USA where, thanks to the first amendment protecting freedom of speech, anything goes.
Quintessential alternative rockers, Sonic Youth, celebrate free-form experimentalism while reinforcing their performance-art driven tradition in this Soundstage performance, recorded on May 7, 2003 at WTTW Grainger Studio in Chicago. The band, which settles just outside the realm of definition, delivers a part rock, part free-form noise, part avant-garde punk performance which features a new song "Sympathy for the Strawberry."
Die Ärzte: Die Nacht der Dämonen
A career-spanning 1979 concert by Patti Smith and her band from Essen, Germany and broadcast on WDR's Rockpalast. Bonus interview after the concert.
Three chords, three countries, one revolution...PUNK IN AFRICA is the story of the multiracial punk movement within the recent political and social upheavals experienced in three Southern African countries: South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
When the first wave of punk broke Australian shores in the 1970’s it was met with a fierce embrace that still reverberates. Adopted and adapted with fearsome intensity by disenfranchised, pre-globalisation Australian kids against the isolation and cultural vacuity of mainstream Australia, punk was a DIY counterculture - a profound, lived, visceral critique of late 20th century capitalism. Australian punk chose values and agendas that for many have become lifelong.