Lydia Lunch

Spit and Ashes is a reimagining of the historical violence waged against women by patriarchal forces in the name of religion, medicine and family. The High Priestess embodies the wild, sexual and grotesque - the un-tamable hunger of female desire and the ultimate threat to male power. The Midwife is the spirit of all women who sought knowledge and agency over their own bodies and paid for their agency with their lives. Through a series of erotic and brutal rituals these women come together to reclaim their bodies and prepare for the fight ahead.

The first career-spanning documentary retrospective of Lydia Lunch's confrontational, acerbic and always electric artistry. As New York City's preeminent No Wave icon from the late 70's, Lunch has forged a lifetime of music and spoken word performance devoted to the utter right of any woman to indulge, seek pleasure, and to say "fuck you!" as loud as any man. In this time of endless attacks on women this is a rallying cry to acknowledge the only thing that is going to bring us together - ART...as the universal salve to all of our traumas.

7.3/10

A real time journey witnessing the rise, fall, and ultimate redemption of the fierce feminist pioneers of American grunge punk: L7.

7.6/10

Poetic seductress Lydia Lunch describes the destructive nature of a broken human before partaking in physical abuse of grown men with her younger counterpart.

Six days of shooting through the desert deathscape, Mojave motels with bug blankets and bone white rocks, future retro Reno motels with pink light bulbs where we shot in kimonos and 7 inch heels until the sun came up, exploring death valley dunes while being our own crew and stars, to dance in the ruins of Rhyolite in Nevada where thunder cracked the sky.

Bye Bye Blondie tells the tale of Gloria and Frances, who first met when they were both patients in the same psychiatric hospital back in the 1980s, and decided to run away together. At the time their love affair was defined by youthful intensity. Later, when Francis disappeared without a trace, Gloria mourned the loss with a heavy heart. Over 20 years later, Francis (Emmanuelle Béart) and Gloria (Béatrice Dalle) have both turned 40. They've taken very different paths in life, with nomadic Gloria spending most of her time in a dive bar, and Frances enjoying success as a popular Parisian TV personality. The wife of a closeted and successful novelist, Francis is locked in a mutually-beneficial marriage of convenience when she once again crosses paths with Gloria, and finds her comfortable world turned upside down.

5.2/10

From myth to legend Rowland Howard appeared on the early Melbourne punk scene like a phantom out of Kafkaesque Prague or Bram Stoker’s Dracula. A beautifully gaunt and gothic aristocrat, the unique distinctive fury of his guitar style shot him directly into the imagination of a generation. He was impeccable, the austerity of his artistry embodied in his finely wrought form, his obscure tastes and his intelligently wry wit. He radiated a searing personal integrity that never seemed to tarnish. Despite the trials and tribulations of his career, in an age of makeover and reinvention, Rowland Howard never ‘sold out’. With recent and moving interviews, archival interviews and other fascinating and original footage, AUTOLUMINESCENT traces the life of Rowland S Howard. Capturing moments with the man himself and intimate missives from those who knew him behind closed doors; words and images etch light into what has always been the mysterious dark.

7.9/10
10%

In the years before Ronald Reagan took office, Manhattan was in ruins. But true art has never come from comfort, and it was precisely those dire circumstances that inspired artists like Jim Jarmusch, Lizzy Borden, and Amos Poe to produce some of their best works. Taking their cues from punk rock and new wave music, these young maverick filmmakers confronted viewers with a stark reality that stood in powerful contrast to the escapist product being churned out by Hollywood.

7.1/10
7.9%

Lazlo Pearlman is a conceptual artist, an activist capable of dinamiting our prejudices about sex and identity. What it seems to be a reflexion about lies in our sexual lives suddenly turns out to be a sharp discourse about gender theory and the continuous evolution of our identitiy. Fake Orgasm, first part of an ambitious multidisciplinary project about sexuality and identity, hits our minds and forces a change of perspective to reconsider some concepts we've been educated with and grown up with.

6/10

Renowned artist Lydia Lunch joins architect Juan Azulay in an experimental performance broadcast live from the SCI-Arc Gallery.

Even in a postapocalyptic future in which Earth has been colonized by aliens, humans need hearts to live, so when an orphan boy's sister needs a new one, he'll go to just about any length to get it in this "illustrated film" from Matt Pizzolo.

5.4/10

Mutantes sheds light on a feminism that was little talked about in France. This documentary comprises of a series of interviews conducted in the USA, Paris and Barcelona, and documents from the archives about the political action of sex workers, queer activists and post-pornographic performances.

6.4/10

Claude Pérès pushes actor/director relationship to its breaking point by asking an actor to make love with him.

3.9/10

the connections and energy flow between the various artists populating the 1980s sub-cultures of New York and Berlin. Features Jim Jarmusch, Lydia Lunch, Blixa Bargeld, Alex Hacke, Gudrun Gut, Nick Cave, and others. An important film. Bravo, Mr. Dreher.

6.6/10

A documentary about composer/producer/performer JG Thirlwell and his musical alter-egos, including Foetus, Steroid Maximus and Manorexia. Featuring interviews with Thirlwell, Matt Johnson (The The), Alex Hacke (Neubauten), Michael Gira (Swans), Richard Kern, Lydia Lunch and more.

7.1/10

Guy Maddin flies to Kansas City, Missouri, in a vain attempt to save cinema as it continues to die from contempt and neglect.

6.3/10

For the End of Time is a film about the mind… a film about the body and our inability to merge these two entities which are shaping a form of civilization known under the term “human”. A human is not a being unto itself. A human is a construct… a civilization-related coding of a certain precise time and place. A human is not a uniform creature. A human is a split between many things… but the worst is the split carried inside… that between the mind and the body… How can we feel others, if the only universe that an individual truly lives in and feels is his or her own universe? How can you feel for the other… How can the other feel for you? Only as much as the pain of the other resembles yours – thus as a reminiscence of one’s own pain. This is the only way. For the End of Time is a film on a quest… for the eternal longing “to find the real thing.

5.1/10

This fascinating and retrospective look at the music of the outspoken and multitalented Lydia Lunch represents every stage of her varied career, with featured songs such as "I Woke Up Screaming" from her Teenage Jesus and the Jerks days. Other songs spanning the decades in this collection include "Freud in Flop," "Sorry for Behaving So Badly," "Dead River," "Solo Mystico," "Summon," "Violence Is the Sport of God" and many more.

Discover the New York underground scene during the 80s and throw yourself into an exciting, anarchic and repulsive world that you won't forget.

6.7/10

Her Noise was an exhibition which took place at South London Gallery in 2005 with satellite events at Tate Modern and Goethe-Institut, London. Her Noise gathered international artists who use sound to investigate social relations, inspire action or uncover hidden soundscapes. The exhibition included newly commissioned works by Kim Gordon & Jutta Koether, Hayley Newman, Kaffe Matthews, Christina Kubisch, Emma Hedditch and Marina Rosenfeld. A parallel ambition of the project was to investigate music and sound histories in relation to gender, and the curators set out to create a lasting resource in this area.

A full-length feature documentary produced in 2006 which serves as a companion piece to and is included on the DVD of the 2004 film KILL YOUR IDOLS.

9.2/10

Cam Archer revisits the life of child actor Jonathan Brandis who committed suicide in 2003. Lydia Lunch narrates this meditation on fame, the actor’s pressure to remain in the public eye and the surreal events in the lead up to his unexplained death.

2.6/10

Young Jeremiah lives in a stable environment with loving foster parents until the day his troubled mother, Sarah, returns to claim him. Jeremiah becomes swept up in his mother's dangerous world of drugs, seedy hotels, strip joints and revolving lovers. Salvation comes in the form of the boy's ultrareligious grandparents, but soon Jeremiah's mother returns. Maternal love binds the pair together on the road until Sarah's desperate and depraved lifestyle finally consumes her.

6.4/10
4.1%

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

6.5/10

Francisco just got out of prison after a six year sentence and is now a free man. He wants to change, and after a few days sleeping in the subway tunnels, and some small jobs, he finally gets a room on a cheap hotel. He changes his looks, gets a job, lives his life.

5/10

This documentary features interviews with Ian MacKaye (Fugazi), J Mascis (Dinosaur jr.), John John Jesse (Demonic Erotic painter), Jim Rose (Jim Rose Sideshow), Jim Thirwell (Foetus), Lydia Lunch, Mike Watt (Minutemen), Richard Kern (Filmmaker), Ron Ashet

6.8/10

Malga Kubiak stars in her exploration of sex and self. One woman's love to her own body interlaced with maggots; mixes x-rated porn. Voyeuristically titillating this avant-garde study of horrors of sex.

Complete strangers meet in a room to act out their sexual desires.

7.2/10

Die Haut filmed live at Tempodrom, Berlin, August 1992. Featuring guest vocalists Alexander Hacke, Anita Lane, Blixa Bargeld, Kid Congo Powers, Lydia Lunch and Nick Cave.

Collection of live spoken word performances by Lydia Lunch.

A scattershot documentary about punk rock film makers in New York, with contributions from Lydia Lunch, Henry Rollins, Richard Kern, Beth B, Nick Zedd and many others. A love letter to the New York Underground.

Beth B, in collaboration with legendary downtown performance artist/musician Lydia Lunch, creates a chilling yet poetic vision of despairing nihilism -- literally, a "meditation on death." In this noirishly rendered narrative, a woman negotiates the banalities of life.

Punk icons Lydia Lunch and Henry Rollins star in this cult drama about a pregnant pianist named Hedda whose marriage to husband Neal (Don Bajema) hits the skids with the sudden appearance of a mysterious stranger.

5.7/10

Maria Beatty's documentary exploring the insights and influences of the American Beat Poets. The film conveys their consciousness and sensibility through interviews with William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Diane Di Prima, among others. Also weaves in additional commentary from contemporary musicians, poets and writers such as Marianne Faithfull, Richard Hell, Lydia Lunch and Henry Rollins. Also expands upon how the poets reached new levels of creativity and inspired social change.

7/10

At the end of the Reagan years, rocker and confrontational performance artist Lydia Lunch launches a broadside. From a formal podium, she attacks the white male power structure of the US. Next she takes on her parents. Then, the volume lowered and the background the streets of New York, she lets us know what she thinks of life, of herself, and of us, anyone who's watching or listening. Life is depression, despair, and death. She's the girl next door gone bad. And us? Compliant sheep. Lunch lays out a challenge.

6.8/10

PBS produced documentary about Sonic Youth at the height of their powers in 1988

8.3/10

A young woman wanders around New York City and stumbles across a number of strange characters and settings that represent the "underground" areas of the city. She sees stand up comedy in Central Park, a prostitution auction, a voodoo ceremony, an S&M club, and a number of very interesting performance artists. These are just a few of the sights and sounds of New York that she encounters.

6.2/10

Sadomasochistic images of self-mutilation.

5.5/10

Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends is a straight-to-video release by magicians Penn & Teller on Lorimar Home Video in 1987. The tape features seven different swindles or tricks that the home viewer can use to fool their friends. The tape was a companion piece to their best selling book of the same name. All of the tricks involve using a portion of the videotape.

7/10

Penn Jillette and Teller are called upon to display their unique brand of humor to save civilization from strange extraterrestrial beings who have invaded Earth and who, disgruntled and bored with the mundane nature of human life, threaten to blow up the planet unless someone gives them a good reason not to.

7.5/10

One of Richard Kern’s most ambitious works is Fingered (1986), whose sarcastic disclaimer says “although it is not our sole intention to shock, insult, or irritate, you have been warned that we are catering only to our own preferences as members of the sexual minority.”

6.3/10

Shots of walking down 42nd Street showing storefronts including everything from Texas Fried Chicken to 25cent porn arcades.

6.8/10

Lydia Lunch and Penn & Teller jazz up the Jenkins' family picnic home movie, turning it into a backyard SOV slasher.

Music video of Sonic Youth with Lydia Lunch spliced with scenes featuring Lung Leg.

The sexual misadventures of a sexually insane girl.

6.4/10

Oddballs dancing, leering at camera, guy shaving a nontraditional part of his body and man ripping his own throat out, woman stabbing herself to death.

6.1/10

The film starts off with an eight minute concert sequence shot in the summer of '84 at a club called Eight BC in NYC. The band consists of Lydia Lunch, Pat Place and Connie Burg all playing guitars onstage, shot from skewed diagonal angles. Then a series of shots taken off the TV. Then two films Zedd made in 1976 or '77 when he lived in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

A filmmaker follows his girlfriend around London with a camera featuring narration from a cassette tape she made for him to break-up the relationship.

4.9/10

Lydia Lunch laments the difficulty of relationships in the wilds of Connemara, Ireland.

A film noirish atmosphere is created to show detective Lunch (a popular underground musician and poet) plow her way through the plans of a corporate businessman who seeks government defense contracts through real "corporate wars" and the manipulation of politicians.

5.4/10

A psychotic saxophone player (played both by Amos Poe and John Lurie) lures victims to deserted spots with his music and then guns them down.

5.9/10

A noir mostly set in a bathroom stall and stairwell. A private dick trapped in a tight spot. A narrator searching for a way out of the story.

5.5/10

A punk savage satire about a kidnapping.

7.7/10

The "No New York Festival" on a tour of Europe. This concert is at SO36, Kreuzberg, Berlin, where a sprawling variety of bands and musicians related to the NNNF performed.

A man is tortured by his girlfriend and then locked inside a black box.

6.6/10

Beauty Becomes the Beast describes a random access world mediated by TV images and shards of popular culture. The film features a powerful performance by Lydia Lunch regressing from adulthood to childhood, hinting at a sexually abusive past. It concerns itself with the position of woman as subject and the way women experience patriarchal law and the heterosexual order.

7.4/10

Filmed at CBGB’s, New York City at a Teenage Jesus & The Jerks concert on January 13th, 1978. The film shows the band members’ heads in slow motion over a live concert soundtrack.

Nares mocks up Ancient Rome by shooting in faux-classical sites like Grant's Tomb and Tribeca's American Thread Building, where a decrepit penthouse loft with a peeling-paint dome serves as an echoey stand-in for the imperial palace. The latter location required ingenuity: Posing as potential renters, Nares and associates asked the manager to show them the apartment, then unlocked the windows on the way out; a few hours later, they broke back into the space, full cast and crew in tow, to shoot the necessary scenes.

6.1/10

This experimental short consists of eight unedited rolls of super-8 film, each of which profiles an individual woman in real time. The women engage in everyday behaviour, such as playing pinball or reading a letter aloud.

6.4/10

Two women- one passive and resigned, the other aggressive and domineering - interact in various locations in New York city. The film explores the dynamic between them before ending with a showdown at the roller-coaster on Coney Island.

6.1/10

The film documents the beginning of the punk rock movement in New York City at CBGB's, a punk night club, and the lifestyle that revolves around this scene. It presents a sometimes shocking look at the attitudes and motivations behind the movement through interviews with outspoken club-goers and band members of the Ramones, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and the Dead Boys.

7.2/10