38/79: Sentimental Punk

Image and information. Style and fashion. Roots and culture. A video flyer promoting the punk scene in California.

Len Lye scraped together enough funding and borrowed equipment to produce a two-minute short featuring his self-made monkey, singing and dancing to 'Peanut Vendor', a 1931 jazz hit for Red Nichols. The two foot high monkey had bolted, moveable joints and some 50 interchangeable mouths to convey the singing. To get the movements right, Lye filmed his new wife, Jane, a prize-winning rumba dancer.

Two young men and two girls on a moonlit night confess to each other in their strange fantasies and loves that go beyond the usual standards.. The impetus to making the film was the book of the same name by the Russian religious philosopher Vasily Rozanov, who died 100 years ago. His treatise was devoted to the study of sexuality and its denial in Christianity. The film was made in the style of experimental films of the 1920s with a non-linear narration full of strange surrealistic images. He is black and white and devoid of dialogue. Filmed on film 16 mm of firm "Svema", released in the USSR. This added to his exoticism. The image was put to the music of Alexander Scriabin “The Poem of Ecstasy” (1907).

In the pinnacle of their Stack Is The New Black national tour, Short Stack play the Sydney Opera House in a sold out mega-show.

Henry Rollins narrates Lilly Scourtis Ayers' no-holds-barred profile of volatile Bay Area punk legend Marian Anderson, whose hypnotic beauty, devil-may-care rebellion and shocking sexual exploits onstage launched her to infamy before tragically dying of a heroin overdose at the tender age of 33.

This previously unreleased, 35-minute documentary film that takes you deep into the bowels of Winnipeg's punk and hardcore underground circa the mid-2000s. "The Manitoba Connection" provides a rare, lightning-in-a-bottle snapshot of DIY subculture as it is on the Canadian Prairie, marked by geographical isolation, brutal winters, and a history of working-class politics.

Naked bodies are buffeted by water accompanied by the music Il Temporale from the opera La Cenerentola and the overture to Il Barbiere di Siviglia both by Gioacchino Rossini.

Don Letts examines the history of this notorious subculture in a fascinating documentary, which features interviews with members of different skinhead scenes through the decades. Beginning in the late 1960s, Don fondly recalls a time of multiracial harmony as youngsters bonded over a love of ska, reggae and smart clothes as white working-class kids were attracted to Jamaican culture and adopted its music and fashions. But when far-right politics targeted skinheads in the 1970s and 1980s, an ugly intolerance emerged, and Don reveals how the once-harmonious subgroup has since struggled to shake this stigma.

"Getting The Knack" chronicles the controversial career of power pop stars, The Knack. Viewers will witness a compelling tale of instant stardom and spectacular failure, a story marked by heroin addiction, alcohol abuse, vicious inner-band feuding and massive critical backlash. "Getting The Knack" explores the group's career via candid interviews with the original band, producers Mike Chapman and Jack Douglas, Sharona Alperin, (the inspiration behind their biggest hit), Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols, Rick Springfield, Elliot Easton of The Cars, Devo's Bob Mothersbaugh, comedian Weird Al Yankovic and many more. Narrated by Cherie Currie of The Runaways, "Getting the Knack" is augmented by scores of rare photos and previously unseen archival footage providing a no-holds barred look at the rise and fall and ultimate resurrection of the group.

In 2004 a group of friends took the stage at a small coffee house in Dekalb Illinois with the sole purpose of pissing off everyone. Surprisingly, enough people liked what the band was doing that they continued to play music under the name Weekend Nachos. This documentary simply tells the story of Weekend Nachos.