Wasted Summer

Originally titled Teenage Runaways and released as a pornographic film, Punk Rock is the R-rated version of an interesting sleazefest. Despite production values and most performances being on the level of a typical porno, Carter Stevens received good critical reception for his original film and decided a re-cut for a wider audience could work. The hardcore scenes are swapped out for performances by now-forgotten bands at Max’s Kansas City - The Squirrels, The Spicy Bits and The Fast. Ignoring the presence of tits and prostitutes, I think it’s fair to say that these performances are the main appeal for most modern watchers, providing a dimly-lit insight into the early days of punk. The effort to cut around sex scenes is choppy and leads to a few instances of confusion, but it doesn’t really detract much given that the plot isn’t too sharp in the first place. The film follows Wade Nichols doing his best 1940s detective impression, monologuing over run-down city scenes about the missing...

This is a shitty manifesto that I was forced to write for an experimental module last year. I am putting it here because I don't want to lose it. Any manifesto that tries to define what art or film “should” be is a lie. I would not be writing this manifesto if I was not being told to do it for a class. The ideas that exist in my head only exist within my head, and they define nothing about the rest of the world. I cannot define art. I cannot restrict film, even by restricting it to non-restriction. I cannot impose my feelings and preferences on to anything but my own work. What I feel about my own work is this:     I do not want my films to be boring.     I do not want my films to be “content.”     I would like to be able to afford to eat. That is everything. A film does not need to serve its audience. It doesn’t need to entertain or educate or emotionally resonate. It has every right to do those things, but nothing is ever a necessity. A fil...

WARNING: Discussion of sexual assault “This film is an EXERCISE in the CAPITALIZATION of an EXPLOITATION that some may find unnecessarily VIOLENT, SEXIST and DISGUSTING. We therefore suggest the viewer EXECUTE caution and discretion. Although it is not our sole intent to SHOCK, INSULT or IRRITATE, you have been warned that we are CATERING only to our own preference as members of the SEXUAL MINORITY.” Lydia Lunch is pretentious. But she’s also fucking awesome. Cinema of Transgression is a weird thing to talk about. Despite proclaiming to be a fully-fledged movement, modern discussions tend to revolve exclusively around Nick Zedd and Richard Kern. For all of Zedd’s talk about destroying film schools and creating something truly transgressional, the work that transpired was extremely narcissistic and often straight-up boring. It’s cool to break conventions, but when it results in Kembra Pfahler pretending to be a fish and getting fucked by tentacles for twenty minutes ( War Is Menstural E...