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
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.
The Arabic Numeral Series (1980-82)
(P.A.S.)
The Roman Numeral Series (1979-81)
(P.A.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.
(Article)
February 28: A group of student experimental filmmakers meet at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to form the Experimental Film Coalition.
(Article)
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.
(Article)
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.)
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
Reverberation (1969, revised 1986)
(P.A.S.)
Untitled: Part One 1981 (revised 1986)
(P.A.S.)
Death Valley 69
(music video for Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch; starring Lung Leg) (J.S.) (Watch)
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.