Lee Ranaldo
For over 70 years, Jonas Mekas, internationally known as the "godfather" of avant-garde cinema, documented his life in what came to be known as his diary films. From his arrival in New York City as a displaced person in 1949 to his death in 2019, he chronicled the trauma and loss of exile while pioneering institutions to support the growth of independent film in the United States. Fragments of Paradise is an intimate look at his life and work constructed from thousands of hours of his own video and film diaries-including never-before-seen tapes and unpublished audio recordings. It is a story about finding beauty amidst profound loss, and a man who tried to make sense of it all... with a camera.
A fly-on-the-wall documentary about the recording of the music score by Sonic Youth.
A taxidermist has been living alone on an island for more than forty years, after the loss of his love. A visit from the doctor confirms his biggest fear - the life he knows is coming to an end.
Karen sings and plays the trumpet in a vigorous rock band in Brasilia, but no one there is interested in it. At 27, she has lost hope in the city her grandfather helped to build. She follows in the footsteps of her ex-partner in the band, Artur, and tries her luck in Berlin.
The savage and tender extremes of Swans told with unprecedented access to archive material and interviews spanning the past 35 years.
A concert film of Sonic Youth performing their Daydream Nation album in full at the ABC in Glasgow.
The 29-minute experimental film Christmas on Earth caused a sensation when it first screened in New York City in 1964. Its orgy scenes, double projections and overlapping images shattered artistic conventions and announced a powerful new voice in the city's underground film scene. All the more remarkable, that vision belonged to a teenager, 18-year-old Barbara Rubin. A Zelig of the '60s, she introduced Andy Warhol to the Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan to Kabbalah and bewitched Allen Ginsberg. The same unbridled creativity that inspired her to make films when women simply didn't, saw her breach yet another male domain, Orthodox Judaism, before her mysterious death at 35. Lifelong friend Jonas Mekas saved all her letters, creating a rich archive that filmmaker Chuck Smith carefully sculpts into this fascinating portrait of a nearly forgotten artist. An avante-garde maverick, a rebel in a man's world, Barbara Rubin regains her rightful place in film history.
The untold story of a series of Reagan-era guerrilla punk and industrial desert happenings in Southern California that are now recognized as the inspiration for Burning Man, Lollapalooza, and Coachella. Interviews and rare performance footage of Sonic Youth, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Redd Kross, Einstürzende Neubauten, Survival Research Laboratories, Savage Republic, Swans and more.
Filmed during dozens of recording sessions, Hello Hello Hello is a story of the creative process - Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) collaborating with producer Raül Refree, across a year and 3,842 miles with a little help from their friends. Novelist Jonathan Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn, The Fortress of Solitude) plays writer/lyricist/muse to Ranaldo's artist/composer wanderings, across soundscapes created alongside friends and musical guest artists including Nels Cline (Wilco), Sharon Van Etten, Alan Licht, Kid Millions (Oneida), and Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth). Theirs is an unusually intimate and personal process in the creation of Ranaldo's album, Electric Trim (Mute, 2017), a bold, new sound and a lush and striking departure from Ranaldo's signature work.
For over 30 years, Martin Bisi has been recording music from his studio in Gowanus, Brooklyn. He has worked with many influential musicians, including Sonic Youth, Swans, Herbie Hancock, Brian Eno and the Dresden Dolls. Now though, he finds himself squeezed in by the approaching gentrification of his neighborhood.
SEX AND BROADCASTING is a feature length documentary about New Jersey's WFMU, the world's strangest and most unique radio station, and one man's attempt to keep it alive in the face of recession, the persistent threat of commercial media, and the challenges that come with keeping a rebellious group of outsiders together.
A riveting and emotional journey into the world of writer William S. Burroughs, a man considered as cold as an iceberg on a winter night.
After months of living a solitary existence, Lenny, 34, picks up his kids from school. Every year he spends a couple of weeks with his sons Sage, 9, and Frey, 7. Lenny hosts his kids within a midtown studio apartment in New York City. During these two weeks, he must figure out if he wants to act as their father or be their friend. Ultimately, their trip upstate results in complete lawlessness taking over their lives.
A feature-length documentary chronicling early '80s punk rock band the Minutemen, from their beginnings in San Pedro, California, to their demise after the death of singer D. Boon in 1985.
The Eurockéennes de Belfort is one of France's largest rock music festivals. The Eurockéennes, a play on words involving the words rock and européennes (Europeans), is a festival based in a nature reserve beside Lac de Malsaucy near Belfort.
A compilation of 24 music videos by Sonic Youth ranging from 1990 to 2002. Collaborators include Harmony Korine, Spike Jonze, Todd Haynes, Mark Romanek, Richard Kern, and more.
While planning the eventual DVD release for "1991: The Year Punk Broke", Dave Markey cut a 40-minute film out of unused footage to create a companion piece to include. The film was also shown to a handful of lucky audiences before the DVD's eventual release in 2011. It's an awesome bonus with tons of great footage that could have easily been in the film. These songs were probably the best to leave out of the full-length film, since 2 were brand new and still quite shaky. The only tour staple not accounted for in either film is "Mary-Christ". Here are the sources I could determine: Inhuman - ?? White Kross - 08/27/91 Bremen Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit - 08/24/91 Koln In Bloom (Nirvana) - 09/01/91 Rotterdam Eric's Trip - 09/01/91 Rotterdam (but spoken intro is from 08/25/91?) Tunic snippet - 08/27/91 Bremen Chapel Hill - 08/27/91 Bremen
Ground breaking music videos from some of the most influential bands of the 90s Punk/Grunge scene such as the Flaming Lips, Mudhoney, Bad Brains, Afghan Whigs, Foetus Inc, Soul Asylum, American Music Club, Babes in Toyland, Dinosaur Jr and more.
A 2004 documentary on thirty years of alternative rock 'n roll in NYC.Documenting the history from the genuine authenticity of No Wave to the current generation of would be icons and true innovators seeing to represent New York City in the 21st century
Quintessential alternative rockers, Sonic Youth, celebrate free-form experimentalism while reinforcing their performance-art driven tradition in this Soundstage performance. 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."
Filmed April 12, 2003 at a benefit concert held at and for The Anthology Film Archives, the international center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of avant-garde and independent cinema. In addition to screening films for the public, AFA houses a film museum, research library and art gallery. The event, which raised money for the Archives and celebrated the life and work of avant-garde film maker Stan Brakhage, featured Sonic Youth providing an improvised instrumental collaboration with silent Brakhage’s films. The band performed with drummer/percussionist Tim Barnes (Essex Green, Jukeboxer, Silver Jews).
Christian demonstrates some techniques and preparations and meditates on the turntable, improvisation, and the difference between the sonic and the visual arts.
Official music video for 'Sunday,' the first single from Sonic Youth's 1998 album A Thousand Leaves.
Live at Rocknacht, Germany 1996. Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from NewYork City, formed in 1981. In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City. Part of the first wave of American noise rock groups, the band carried out their interpretation of the hardcore punk ethos throughout the evolving American underground that focused more on the DIY ethic of the genre rather than its specific sound. As a result, some consider Sonic Youth as pivotal in the rise of the alternative rock and indie rock movements.
David Markey's documentary of life on the road with Sonic Youth and Nirvana during their tour of Europe in late 1991. Also featuring live performances by Dinosaur Jr, Babes In Toyland, The Ramones and Gumball.
PBS produced documentary about Sonic Youth at the height of their powers in 1988
A documentary about the recent resurgence in sales of vinyl records and its impact on the industry.
Comedy troupe The State hosts a Halloween special on CBS.
A video documenting Sonic Youth's performance at the Gila Monster Jamboree. Taking place in a remote location in the Mojave Desert, this was the bands first ever show on the West Coast. The bill also included bands such as Meat Puppets, Red Kross and Psi-Com.
As a fixture of the New York music scene for 30 years, Sonic Youth performed in New York City innumerable times, and served as ersatz cultural ambassadors for the city when traveling. As part of the 2019 Rooftop Films programming, Sonic Youth will present a New York-specific collection of film and videos from their private archives. Much of the material to be presented is completely unseen, threaded together with a few items which are out there in the public knowledge but here presented from the best source available to the band.
Track listing: 01:26 - The Sprawl 10:45 - Incinerate 16:15 - Hey Joni 20:42 - Jams Run Free 24:34 - Pink Steam Recorded August 2007 at Maida Vale Studios, in London, England. "From The Basement" features exclusive live music performances with some of the finest A list and emerging talent. Including The White Stripes, Radiohead, Albert Hammond Jr., Beck, Jarvis Cocker, Sonic Youth, PJ Harvey, Mark E Smith, Red Hot Chill Peppers, Feist, Thundercat, José González, Gnarls Barkley, Iggy Pop and The Stooges, Fleet Foxes, The Raconteurs, Band of Horses, Queens of the Stone Age, and many many more.
