PUNK MOVIE NIGHTS

I just returned home from working the door for an afternoon show at Mission Records in San Francisco. This morning I was trying to deal with a migraine headache that turned into flu like symptoms, and then after puking for fifteen minutes straight went back to being just a run of the mill migraine again. Somehow I managed to swallow a bunch of over the counter medicines with a large cup of Peet's coffee, which I had to drink before the scary effects of caffeine withdrawl set in, compounding my misery. Somehow I managed to get to the show and work the door effectively for approximately five hours, and by the end of my shift I was pretty buzzed by all of the free d.i.y. medical attention I received (Lots of beer followed by whiskey and Coke) from the various punk aquaintances who showed up for the gig. All in all it was worth it, and every band played so well that I'm optomistic for the first time in along time that the Bay Area has yet another bright moment or two left in it's underground before the yuppies claim the gutters and scabie colonies as well.
Oh, hey, it's Punk Movie Night!

VIDEO ACTIVE · Toronto Videos Activist Collective

This is a compilation tape that features 13 video shorts documenting various forms of political activism that have taken place recently in Canada. VIDEO ACTIVE begins dramatically with a film called HOMELESS ON THE HILL that documents the actions of homeless and anti-poverty activists as they attempt to protest their governments policy towards the homeless. There is a good mix of both young and old who are inspired to take to the streets with banners, chants, and further motivated by a recent death of a homeless friend that many of the persons involved had known. If you've ever been active in any political cause, and had an occasion to publicly demonstrate, then much of this film will take you into familiar territory. That doesn't however negate any of the excitement, and sometimes even anger at that the scenes depicting confrontations between protestors and police. In HOMELESS ON THE HILL this tends to result in unarmed, peaceful protestors having to endure ridiculous amounts of pepper spray (or mace) that are repeatedly sprayed directly into the faces of protestors by the police, who pretend to reluctant even after they are caught on camera spraying activists who aren't even in the vicinity of the metal barriers which mark the line that police do not want the protestors to cross. In other films, the police empty their canisters of pepper spray so fast that they return to their trusty nightsticks, which they use to beat any helpless protestor who happens to fall or get seperated from the pack senseless. It is a brutal reminder of why the underground and those who are politically active tend to both fear and hate police of any kind with a passion.
VIDEO ACTIVE doesn't just cover group activism, but it touches upon the personal side, and the human emotions that often cause us to become interested in one particular story or another. You know, that one cause which seems to resinate a little bit stronger when you first learn the details of a particularly ignorant injustice that has taken place. In the film SHADMITH MANZO PERFORMANCE we learn the story of a Mexican transexual woman's fight to remain in Canada, where she can live without fearing for her life each and every time she leaves her home, as she did in Mexico. At the begining of SHADSMITH MANZO PERFORMANCE we see evidence of her new freedom in Canada as she plays violin on a sidewalk during a local Gay Pride Parade, but while the song can still be heard in the background, we begin to watch a number of events unfold that ends with the deportation of Shadmith back to Mexico by the Canadian government. Once in Mexico, all of Shadmith's rights, and the freedom she previously experienced disappear. At first she is forced to become a prisoner in her home, but later she becomes a prisoner, literally, in a men's prison. I wont get into any more detail about the case, although many of you may know this story already, but I will say that the film doesn't end on the depressing note you may assume it will when watching it.
There is a lot of information, and many stories documented in each of these 13 films that could serve as inspiration for you in your own efforts to questions authority, and the accepted injustices that take place all around us on a daily basis. Not to mention that each video comes in a 2 color silk-screened bristol box.
($20 ppd, Satan Macnuggit, 3584 John St., Vineland Stn., On L0R2E0 CANADA · satanmacnuggit@tao.ca)

EDITED FOR TV · Collage Films by Jonathan Culp

The coolest moment on this video, which features 7 films by Mr. Culp, comes when DOWN WITH FUN completely disrupts your concept of time and space. It's basically a music video set to 1970s footage of skateboarders, back when surf style skating was all the rage. It's funny, it's cool, and it made me wish I could go back in a time machine just to visit. It's just a nice piece of editing and sound synching, and it alone makes this video woth purchasing. Of course you'll get all of the other films, one which is entitled CHEW IT SOMALIA!, which highlights the fact that colonialism isn't just a chapter in your high school history texts, but something very real and still tangible in our present history. I enjoyed this tape from begining to end, but most of all for the scenes of 1970s skating, and all of those crazy surfers doing their handstand tricks while wearing short shorts and tube socks.
($10 ppd, Satan Macnuggit, 3584 John St., Vineland Stn., On L0R2E0 CANADA · satanmacnuggit@tao.ca)

BARK · A Film by Jonathan Culp

This is Jonathan Culps take on the narrative film style, and BARK proves to be just as competent - and even good in some places - as his work on EDITED FOR TV, which is more abstract in it's style. BARK tells the story of one young woman who spends a drunken night with her friends boyfriend, but when she wakes up the next morning she isn't quite sure about what happened between the two of them. When creepy boyfriend invites her over to retrieve the necklace she left behind the trip turns into two days of stealing and life on the run, even it is all more of a childish fantasy than a real crime spree. the creepy guy uses intimidation, and he preys on some pre-existing dysfunctions that he recognizes in his naieve victim. Of course he is even more screwed up than she is, and it all dawns on her when they finally begin to get hot in heavy on an abandoned farm. Every shot is nicely framed, and the writing is very concise and well planned out. The male lead here is perfect, but his co-star doesn't seem too convincing as the vulnerable character she was written as. This is one of those shorts that could easily be stretched into something close to a full length independent feature.
($10 ppd, Satan Macnuggit, 3584 John St., Vineland Stn., On L0R2E0 CANADA · satanmacnuggit@tao.ca)

SATANIC ATTRACTION · Directed by Fauzi Mansur

If you are a b-movie/ horror film fan, and it's getting to the point where you feel as if even b-movies aren't the load of humorous crap they once were, then discover the world of d-movies. What constitutes a d-movie? A d-movie is the result of what happens when you take a c-movie, and then you badly dub that movie for a foreign market. The script is usually ruined even before that because the translation of the script from one language to another is done via one of those little hand held dictionaries wealthy people take with them when they go on vacation overseas. In a nutshell, everything is so fucking awful that it almost starts to turn that corner where it threatens to become almost decent. It never does however because it's garbage, but the best of these films do become killer cult c-level movies that if observed at the right moment, or at the proper level of intoxication, will transcend their utter mediocrity, becoming an almost great b-movie on the level of SWEET MOVIE. SATANTIC ATTRACTION almost turns that corner, but the attempt to splice together one too many recycled ideas from much better films just highlights how idiotic the plot really is. Quickly, you have a radio show that is hosted by a pear shaped blonde woman who reads, and sometimes improvises, stories of a brother who was married to his sister in a satanic ritual when they were children. The sister meets her untimely death in her late teens, and the brother is forced to murder girls who are the same age as his sister was when she died. He collects their blood and feeds it to his dead and decaying sister, and that combined with ancient satanic rites (Good ol' ancient satanic rites...)will aparently bring his sister back from the dead. His sister is pear shped blonde who may or may not be on the same page as her brother when it comes to this resurrection thing. The pushy and very pregnant (With twins) reporter in a sports bra manages to almost figure this all out, but in the end it is the guy who lives on the boat and wears a sea captain's uniform, even though it turns out he is a police detective. That is all trivial because in order to properly complete the resurrection the toe headed evil brother is instructed by the satanic priest to murder two or three more pear shaped woman, drain their blood into a bucket, and then bring the blood back to his sister who is hypnotized and resting in a coffin. Is their a double cross in the works? Who knows, but one thing is for sure and that is the stupid radio show will never end?
(Complete Entertainment, 9650 De Soto Avenue, Unit C, Chatsworth, CA 91311)

That's all for this month's column, but I can't urge you enough to send me your underground films or videos for future Punk Movie Nights columns. Once again, I can review Super 8 mm, and if you include return postage I will return them. For past columns - and more info about that show( if you care) - you can sign on and point your browser to www.wethepunx.com. To send me anything relevant to this column, write: Jay Dead, PMB 419, 1442A Walnut Street, Berkeley, CA 94709. Paz.