Below is a list of significant events and films in underground film history between the years 1980 and 1989. Reference key of sources appears at the bottom of the page.
1980
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
Joe Coleman
Raw Nerves: A Lacanian Thriller (1979/80)
with Manuel DeLanda
J.S.
1981
MAJOR EVENTS
Nick Zedd meets Jack Smith and helps the performance artist paint his film set/apartment.
J.S.
Tessa Hughes-Freeland moves from England to NYC to do a Masters Program in Cinema Studies.
J.S.
Canyon Cinema stops publishing its popular Cinemanews magazine.
S.M.
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
Paul Tschinkel
DNA at Irvng Plaza
J.S.
1982
MAJOR EVENTS
October 1 – November 21: The Living Cinema in NYC celebrates its 10th anniversary with a two-month long series of screenings of avant-garde films. Included are films by Vivienne Dick, Bette Gordon, Su Friedrich, J.J. Murphy, Taka Iimura, Warren Sonbert, Stan Brakhage, Amy Taubin, Robert Breer, Ken Jacobs, Jonas Mekas, and many more. The program book is included in the Underground Film Archive.
Nick Zedd’s They Eat Scum is broadcast on Manhattan Cable Television’s Channel C. The Wall Street Journal condemns the broadcast on its front page on Dec. 20. The headline reads: “Public Access TV in New York Tends Toward Sex, Sadism.”
J.S.
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
Julie Dash
Illusions
D.E.J.
Manuel DeLanda
Harmful If Swallowed
J.S.
Su Friedrich
Gently Down the Stream
P.A.S.
Baby Doll
J.S.
Walking Film
J.S.
Birthday Party
J.S.
City Film
J.S.
Relapse
J.S.
1983
MAJOR EVENTS
January: The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, along with Media Study/Buffalo launch their touring film retrospective, “The American New Wave 1958-1967,” at the U.S. Film and Video Festival in Park City, Utah.
February 28: A group of student experimental filmmakers meet at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to form the Experimental Film Coalition.
Nick Zedd and Tessa Hughes-Freeland meet for the first time.
J.S.
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
Beth and Scott B
Vortex
J.S.
Robert Beavers
Efpsychi
P.A.S.
Manuel DeLanda
Judgement Day
J.S.
Ela Troyano
The Bubble People
starring Jack Smith and Phoebe Legere
J.S.
Totem of the Depraved
co-directed by Nick Zedd; starring Nick Zedd, Phoebe Legere, Gia Gamba and James Richardson
J.S.
1984
MAJOR EVENTS
Scott and Beth B break up and pursue separate careers.
J.S.
Nick Zedd begins publishing The Underground Film Bulletin using the pseudonym Orion Jeriko.
J.S.
The first annual New York Film Festival Downtown, founded by Tessa Hughes-Freeland and Ela Troyano, is held at Limbo.
J.S.
Alf Bold, a curator or programmer at the Arsenal, comes to NYC to be the guest programmer for The Collective, an alternative film space on White Street.
J.S.
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
Beth B
The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight
music video for Dominatrix
J.S.
Scott B
The Specialist
J.S.
Morgan Fischer
Standard Gauge
P.A.S.
D.E.J.
Su Friedrich
The Ties That Bind
P.A.S.
Goodbye 42nd Street (1983/84)
starring Beth B
J.S.
Zombie Hunger
J.S.
Zombie Hunger 2
J.S.
Blood Boy
completed, but half of it never used and the other half used for Submit to Me
J.S.
The Right Side of My Brain
J.S.
Tommy Turner
Simonland
filmed in part by Richard Kern; conceived with Jenny Holten; starring Tommy Turner and Nick Zedd
J.S.
1985
MAJOR EVENTS
Nick Zedd, as Orion Jeriko, launches the Cinema of Transgression in issue #4 of his zine The Underground Film Bulletin by writing the movement’s manifesto.
J.S.
Article
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
Beth B
I Need Someone
music video for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
J.S.
Scott B
Last Rights
J.S.
Erotic Psyche (Bradley Eros and Aline Mare)
Mutable Fire
J.S.
Rhonda Goes to Hollywood
starring Rhonda Zwillinger
J.S.
Poppo at 8 B.C. Parts I–IV (1984/85)
J.S.
Bildo Does Klein: Models in Blue
J.S.
The Manhattan Love Suicides
includes the films Thrust in Me, Stray Dogs, Woman at the Wheel and I Hate You Now
J.S.
Stray Dogs
starring Bill Rice and David Wojnarowicz
J.S.
Woman at the Wheel
starring Nick Zedd
J.S.
I Hate You Now
starring Tommy and Amy Turner
J.S.
Submit to Me
starring Casandra Stark and Lung Leg
J.S.
You Killed Me First
starring Lung Leg, Karen Finley and David Wojnarowicz
J.S.
Lung Leg
Worm Movie
J.S.
Casandra Stark Mele
Dead on My Arm
soundtrack by This Heat
starring Casandra Stark and Lung Leg, credited as “Lisa alias Lung”
J.S.
Tommy Turner
Where Evil Dwells
co-directed by David Wojnarowicz; starring Scott Werner, Baby Gregor, Joe Coleman and Rockets Redglare
J.S.
1986
MAJOR EVENTS
October 20: Jeff Krulik and John Heyn premiere their underground documentary Heavy Metal Parking Lot at the d.c. space club in Washington, D.C.
Nick Zedd produces the compilation VHS tape The Cinema of Transgression Volume 1 featuring the work of Nick Zedd, Richard Kern, John Spencer, Lung Leg, Richard Klemann, Erotic Psyche (Bradley Eros and Aline Mare), Michael Wolfe and Manuel DeLanda.
J.S.
Year of the 3rd New York Film Festival Downtown. Films include Pus by John Spencer.
J.S.
Article
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
Death Valley 69
music video for Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch; starring Lung Leg
J.S.
Fingered
starring Lydia Lunch, Lung Leg and Marty Nations
J.S.
Pierce
starring Audrey Rose and Capt. Kirk
J.S.
Casandra Stark Mele
Wrecked on Cannibal Island
starring Casandra Stark and Jack Natz
J.S.
Go to Hell
co-directed with Nick Zedd and David Rutsula
J.S.
1987
MAJOR EVENTS
May 3: Richard Kern screens The Evil Cameraman at the Ritz, where it’s stopped after 45 seconds and the bouncers and management of the club threaten to beat Kern up for producing “kiddie porn.”
J.S.
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
Beth B
Salvation!
J.S.
Abigail Child
Is This What You Were Born For? (1981-87)
In seven parts: Prefaces, Both, Mutiny, Covert Action, Perils, Mayhem, Mercy
P.A.S. says in six parts, but lists 7 titles
1988
MAJOR EVENTS
Richard Kern‘s Fingered screens at the Berlin Film Festival at the Zoo Atelier Cinema. The film was jeered while Kern gave the audience the finger.
J.S.
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
Jim VanBebber
Roadkill: The Last Days of John Martin
J.S.
1989
MAJOR EVENTS
Jack Smith dies due to AIDS-related illness in September.
J.S.
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
Peggy Awesh & Keith Sanborn
The Deadman
P.A.S.
Beth B
Belladonna
co-directed with painter Ida Applebroog
J.S.
Thanatopsis
starring Lydia Lunch
J.S.
Faust (series) (1987-89)
Consisting of Faustfilm: An Opera, Faust’s Other: An Idyll, Faust 3: Candida Albacore, Faust 4
P.A.S.
Pat O’Neill
Water and Power
P.A.S.
Jeri Cain Rossi
Kill the Poor
J.S.
Philip B. Roth
Boys/Life
S.M.
Casandra Stark Mele
We Are Not to Blame
starring Nick Zedd, Casandra Stark, Laura Mae Jessen and Richard Kern
J.S.
REFERENCE KEY:
D.E.J.: David E. James. The Most Typical Avant-garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles. Berkeley: University of California, 2005.
J.S.: Jack Sargeant. Deathtripping: the Extreme Underground. Brooklyn: Soft Skull, 2008. (Originally published: London: Creation, 1995.)
P.A.S.: P. Adams Sitney. Visionary Film: the American Avant-garde, 1943-2000. New York: Oxford UP, 2002.
S.M.: Scott MacDonald. Canyon Cinema: the Life and times of an Independent Film Distributor. Berkeley: University of California, 2008.