NO NEW CINEMA:

Punk and No Wave Underground Film

1976-1984
By Harris Smith

It’s a classic piece of Lower East Side urban mythology.

Sometime around 1977, a dealer in “gray market” goods, know as
Freddy the Fence, on East Houston street, acquired a case of new
Super-8 Sound cameras. When members of the neighborhood’s then
thriving but still very underground punk music and arts scene got wind
of this, they leapt on the opportunity to get their hands on these
cameras for cheap, and the result was a nearly five year boom in
underground filmmaking on the Lower East Side. This brief
movement, which had no particular name but is sometimes referred to
as “No Wave” (after the underground music scene it shared many
players in common with) or “New Cinema” (after a short-lived
screening room on St. Mark’s Place run by several filmmakers on the
scene), remains largely unknown, and yet had a significant impact on
both underground film, spawning the Cinema of Transgression (Beth
B, Richard Kern, Nick Zedd, Tessa Hughes-Freeland and others) and
the notion of mainstream independent film in New York (Jim Jarmusch,
Tom DiCillo, Steve Buscemi, Vincent Gallo).

By the time Freddy the Fence made the scene, a young Israeli-
born filmmaker named Amos Poe, along with Czech-born Patti Smith
Group bassist and Iggy Pop guitarist Ivan Kral, had already taken a
movie camera to the neighborhood’s punk scene with “The Blank
Generation” in 1976. Poe’s first film is comprised of silent 16mm
footage of bands playing at CBGBs accompanied by music from the
bands records (including some earlier versions of songs that would
later show up on popular records, and rarer tunes like Television’s
“Little Johnny Jewel”). Among the artists featured are some of the
seminal punk bands of the era, many poised on the brink of
mainstream popularity, like the Patti Smith Group, the Ramones, the
Talking Heads, and Blondie as well as more esoteric but still legendary
acts like Television, Richard Hell and Wayne County and several more
obscure bands like the Marbles, the Tuff Darts, the Miamis and the
Shirts. Lacking synch sound, the film is more document than
documentary (a more “professional” but less intimate and musically
diverse portrait of the CBGBs scene, “Punking Out” (1977) exists but
remains more obscure and harder to find than Poe’s film), but the
dedication to the scene, sharp cinematography and interesting stage
footage between musical numbers suggest a talent that would become
more evident in Poe’s three major underground feature films, “Unmade
Beds” (1976), “The Foreigner” (1978) and “Subway Riders” (1981), as
well as his more mainstream work, like “Alphabet City” (1984) and the
underrated “Frogs For Snakes” (1999). “Unmade Beds” and “The
Foreigner” typify the kind of work to come from the filmmakers on the
scene. In “Unmade Beds”, downtown painter Duncan Hannah plays a
photographer in contemporary New York who believes he is a
character in a French New Wave film. Poe cleverly uses French-
looking architecture and street signs to create the faÁade. The cast
includes such luminaries of the scene as Patti Astor (a regular in
underground films of the time), Debbie Harry of Blondie and French-
born filmmaker Eric Mitchell. Mitchell takes the starring role in “The
Foreigner” as Max Menace, a secret agent from an unnamed country
who arrives in New York on an unspecified mission and finds himself in
the midst of undefined mystery and intrigue. In one of the films more
memorable scenes, Menace is attacked and slashed with a razor (for
real, according to Mitchell) by the Cramps in the bathroom of CBGBs
while the Erasers play onstage. Also in “The Foreigner” are Duncan
Hannah, Patti Astor, Debbie Harry, photographer/singer Anya Phillips
and Poe himself. Poe also appeared in Edo Bertoglio’s film “Downtown
81” with Jean Michel-Basquiat, Eszter Balint, Debbie Harry, David
McDermott, John Lurie and many others from the downtown scene.
The film, written by Glenn O’ Brien (a writer for Interview magazine
and the host of “TV Party”, a cable access showing focusing on the
downtown punk and art scenes), remained unfinished until the late
1990s, when it received a brief theatrical release. Much of the original
sound was lost, so the late Basquiat’s voice had to be re-dubbed by
poet Saul Williams.

Alongside Poe, Mitchell proved one of the major players in the

downtown film scene. Like Poe, his work was infused with the energy
of the punk and underground art scenes, influenced by the French New
Wave and the American underground films of Andy Warhol and Jack
Smith, and dealt with issues of displacement and alienation. One of
the earliest super-8 films of the scene is Mitchell’s “Kidnapped” (1978).
Stylistically similar to Andy Warhol’s early films (it particularly
resembles “Vinyl”, Warhol’s pre-Kubrick version of “A Clockwork
Orange”), “Kidnapped” is essentially centered on the personalities of a
group of people gathered in a room. It is technically primitive,
consisting of several rolls of super-8 sound film spliced together, with
the only cuts the splices, and the film ending when the last roll runs
out. There is no post-production sound, so all the music is played on
an on-screen tape player. In many shots, the script can be seen taped
to the wall behind the actors, who include Patti Astor, Anya Phillips and
Duncan Smith. The personalities of actors, combined with Mitchell’s
scenario make the film work. Far more technically accomplished is
Mitchell’s “Red Italy” (1979). A noirish film, it uses locations like the
Lower East Side, Coney Island and the Chelsea Hotel to recreate a
punkishly reimagined postwar Europe. Jennifer Miro stars as a bored,
rich woman who falls first for an American G.I., then a communist
worker. Also in the cast are Patti Astor, Rene Ricard, James Nares,
Mitchell himself and a band consisting of the likes of John Lurie (of the
Lounge Lizards) and Arto Lindsay (of the band DNA) playing a cool,
ragged cover of Gene Vincent’s “Be Bop a Lula”. Mitchell’s best-known
films are “Underground USA” (1980) and “The Way It Is” (1983). The
latter is a remake of “Sunset Boulevard” by way of Warhol/Morrisey’s
“Heat”. Mitchell stars as a down and out hipster hustler who hooks up
with an aging movie star played by Patti Astor. Also in the cast are
Rene Ricard, Cookie Mueller, John Lurie and Taylor Mead. “The Way It
Is”, Mitchell’s last feature to date, features the first major film roles for
Steve Buscemi and Vincent Gallo, who also composed and performed
(and released on his own record label) the film’s score. In addition to
his prolific work as a filmmaker and actor, Mitchell proved to be
something of a leader to the “No Wave” film scene as well. In 1979,
along with James Nares and Becky Johnston, he created the New
Cinema, a video screening room on St. Mark’s Place dedicated entirely
to showing underground films. Although the venture didn’t last more
than a year, it provided many underground filmmakers of the time an
opportunity to actually get their work seen, and many others an
opportunity to actually see it.

Mitchell’s New Cinema cohorts, James Nares and Becky Johnston,

were filmmakers as well. English-born Nares, who played in seminal
no wave band the Contortions and the Del-Byzanteens (with filmmaker
Jim Jarmusch, Phil Kline, Phillipe Hagen and author Luc Sante), was
one of the less prolific filmmakers of the time, but one of the more
creative. His “Rome ‘78” is perhaps the most epic film of the No Wave
scene, a no budget retelling of the story of Caligula. Shot around
various old looking NYC locales (and some not so old looking ones, like
graffiti strewn downtown alleyways), the film makes light of its
budgetary limitations, flaunting them with punk rock defiance. In
some scenes, actors can be seen wearing wristwatches, and often in
the exterior shots cars can be seen driving by in the background. As
much as any other film of the time, “Rome ‘78” works, because it is
not afraid to not take itself too seriously, yet remains within the
framework in a fairly serious film. The cast includes Eric Mitchell,
David McDermott, Anya Phillips, John Lurie, James Chance (of the
Contortions) and Lydia Lunch (of the band Teenage Jesus and the
Jerks). “Rome ‘78” was followed by a documentary, “No Japs At My
Funeral” in 1980, and a rather brilliant avant-garde super-8 short
“Waiting for the Wind” in 1981. Nares also shot Becky Johnston’s
“Sleepless Nights” in 1980. Johnston would go on to find success in
the world of mainstream film writing screenplays for the Prince movie
“Under the Cherry Moon” (1986), as well as “The Prince of Tides”
(1991) (for which she received an Oscar nomination) and “Seven
Years in Tibet” (1997). James Nares, on the other hand, mostly
retired from film in the early 1980s and has found success as a
painter. He appeared in the short film “Modern Young Man” with Bill
Rice and filmmaker Tom Jarmusch in 1999.

Another prolific director of the New Cinema was Irish-born

Vivienne Dick. Her films include “Guerillere Talks” (1978), “She Had
Her Gun All Ready” (1978), “Beauty Becomes the Beast” (1979) and
“Liberty’s Booty” (1980). Dick’s work tended towards the abstract
more so than many of her contemporaries, but was no less engaging
and energetic. Like many filmmakers of the time, she drew upon the
underground music scene of the Lower East Side, both in terms of
energy and the performers themselves. Lydia Lunch (Teenage Jesus
and the Jerks, 8-Eye Spy) was a frequent star of her films, as was Pat
Place, guitarist for the Contortions and Bush Tetras. The two were
teamed in one Dick’s best films, “She Had Her Gun All Ready.” In the
movie, Lunch stalks Place from the East Village to Coney Island and
eventually kills her. The film utilizes its performers and New York
locales to create a thrilling atmosphere, despite the fact that very little
actually occurs during the course of the narrative. Vivienne Dick
continues to make films and videos today. She currently resides in
Ireland.

Developing around the same time as New York’s punk and no

wave music scenes were hip-hop, break dancing and graffiti culture.
Filmmaker Charlie Ahearn came into contact with this bourgeoning
movement while shooting his super-8 martial arts epic “The Deadly Art
of Survival” around the projects of the Lower East Side in 1979. After
finishing the film “Twins” in 1980, Ahearn turned his camera towards
the hip-hop scene, first shooting a video of New York’s first Hip Hop
Convention, then with the 16mm feature film “Wild Style” (1982). In
the film, Ahearn drew upon the filmmaking principles of the No Wave
scene (as well as some of its performers, including Patti Astor, Bill Rice
and Blondie’s Chris Stein, who contributed to the musical score) but
remained firmly dedicated to presenting an accurate and authentic
portrait of hip-hop. The film’s star is Lee Quninones, a real life graffiti
artist who, in part due to his connection with Ahearn, found some
success on the downtown art scene. Among the musicians featured in
the film are Fab 5 Freddy, Grandmaster Flash, Cold Crush Brothers,
Double Trouble and several other legends of the early New York hip
hop scene. Upon its release, “Wild Style” played to packed audiences
on 42nd street for several weeks. Despite its success, Ahearn turned
from narrative film to painting and video art for most of the 1980s and
1990s, creating a video journal through the window of his Times
Square apartment in “Doing Time in Times Square” (1991) and an
acclaimed series of artist portrait videos. In 1999 he returned to
feature film with “Fear of Fiction.” In addition to his films, Ahearn
was, along with his twin brother John, active in the art world as a
member of Collaborative Projects, the artists collective responsible for
many legendary shows around New York City, mostly famously the
Times Square Show in 1980.

Also active in Collaborative Projects were husband and wife team

Beth and Scott B (since divorced). Together and separately, the duo’s
dark, abrasive cinematic style and harsh thematic content were
instrumental in the genesis of the Cinema of Transgression, a mid-
1980s wave of low-budget super-8 and 16mm filmmakers influenced
by the New Cinema and punk scenes, but more focused on films
centered around explicit sex, graphic violence and other shocking
images. Together, Beth and Scot B made the films “Black Box”
(1978), “G-Man” (1978), “The Offenders” (1979), “Letters to Dad”
(1979), “The Trap Door” (1980) and the feature film “Vortex” (1983),
frequently casting Bill Rice and Lydia Lunch as well as such
underground figures as author Gary Indiana, Ann Magnuson (of the
band Bongwater), filmmaker Jack Smith, Adele Bertei (of the
Contortions), John Lurie, Evan Lurie, Walter Lure (of the Heartbreakers
and Richard Hell and the Voidoids), Pat Place, designer Anna Sui, actor
James Russo and even character actor Dick Miller, a regular in the
films of Roger Corman. On his own, Scot B. made the super-8 shorts
“The Specialist” (1984) and “Last Rights” (1985). Beth B., meanwhile,
has continued to make films and videos in a variety of medias, from
avant-garde shorts like “Belladonna” (1989) and “Thanatopsis” (1991)
to narrative features like “Salvation” (1986) and “Two Small Bodies”
(1993) and documentaries like “Visiting Desire” (1996) and “Breathe
In, Breathe Out” (2000).

In addition to these principal players, many others were making

films around the fringes of the No Wave/New Cinema scene:

Musician/actor John Lurie directed the hilarious 1980 super-8 film

“Men In Orbit” in which he and Eric Mitchell play chainsmoking
astronauts, as well as a remake of “The African Queen” starring James
Chance and taking place entirely in Lurie’s bathtub. Swedish-born
Anders Grafstrom made the 1980 super-8 feature film “The Long
Island Four.” A success on the underground film circuit, “The Long
Island Four” was based on a true story about four Nazi spies who
landed in New York in 1942, but found more interest in the local
nightlife than in their original mission. The cast includes David
McDermott, Patti Astor, future “Sixteen Candles” star Gedde Watanabe
and electronic music pioneer Klaus Nomi, many of whose early
performances were filmed by the director. Sadly, Grafstrom was killed
in an auto accident shortly after finishing “The Long Island Four.”
Some of his footage of Nomi was used in the 1980 video “Mr. Mike’s
Mondo Video.”

Collaborative Projects artists Michael McClard made films of the

Contortions in concert in 1978 and a short called “Alien Portrait” in
1979. McClard was also a co-founder of All Color News and
Communications Update, two early cable access documentary
programs rooted in the downtown arts and punk scenes. Also making
films on No Wave bands was Paul Tschinkel, who shot footage of Lydia
Lunch’s Eight-Eyed Spy in 1980 and Arto Lindsay’s DNA in 1981.

Future music video director Michael Oblowitz made the feature

“King Blank” in 1983, towards the end of the No Wave scene. The
film, starring Ron Vawter (later in films by Jonathan Demme and
Steven Soderberg) and Will Patton (later a character actor in many
Hollywood films), is notable mainly for its unrelenting willingness to be
unrelentingly negative and unpleasant. Oblowitz later directed the
mainstream indie “This World, and Then the Fireworks” (1997), based
on a novel by Jim Thompson, as well as several direct to video films
like “On The Borderline” (2000), “The Breed” (2001), and “Out For A
Kill” and “The Foreigner” (no relation to Amos Poe’s film), both from
2003 and both starring Steven Segal.

Bette Gordon had been making short films throughout the 1970s,
and made “Empty Suitcases” (1980) and the acclaimed feature
“Variety” (1985) around the No Wave cinema scene. “Variety” starred
Will Patton, photographer Nan Goldin and character actor Luiz Guzman
and featured an excellent jazz score by John Lurie. Gordon taught film
classes at Columbia and directed for television throughout the late-80s
and 90s, then returned to feature filmmaking in 2000 with the
mainstream indie “Luminous Motion.” Gordon’s then-husband, Tim
Burns, from Australia, was also active in the downtown underground
film, video, theater and art communities. Together, the two made the
video “What Is It, Zach?” in 1983.
 Like Bette Gordon, filmmaker Lizzie Borden drew heavily upon
feminist themes in her work. Borden’s 1983 feature “Born In Flames”
was one of the most ambitious feature films to come out around the
edges of the New Cinema film scene. Shot on a miniscule budget,
“Born In Flames” takes place 10 years in the future, after a peaceful
Socialist uprising. The film chronicles the story of a group of feminist
revolutionaries who, dissatisfied with the treatment of minorities of the
new regime, rise up against it. In the cast are Becky Johnston, Adele
Bertei, Ron Vawter, performance artist Eric Bogosian and Kathryn
Bigelow. Bigelow, then active in the downtown arts scene, would soon
go on to direct her own feature film, “The Loveless” (1982), which
was Willem Dafoe’s first movie, then more mainstream films like “Near
Dark” and “Point Break.” Lizzie Borden, meanwhile, would go on to
make the award winning feature “Working Girls” (1986) and the
controversial mainstream indie film “Love Crimes” in 1992.

Lizzie Borden and Bette Gordon both also directed episodes of

the late 1980s television horror anthology program “Monsters”, as did
filmmaker Sara Driver. In 1981, Driver made “You Are Not I”, based
on a Paul Bowles short story and starring Suzanne Fletcher, Evelyn
Smith and Luc Sante. The movie was well received by the
underground. Driver’s co-writer, co-producer and cinematographer
was Jim Jarmusch, who also shot her ethereal 1985 feature film
“Sleepwalk”, also starring Suzanne Flectcher, with Ann Magnuson,
Steve Buschemi, Bill Rice and future “Candyman” star Tony Todd.
Driver’s most recent film is “When Pigs Fly” (1996), co-produced by
Jarmusch and starring Alfred Molina, Marianne Faithfull and Seymour
Cassel, and featuring music by Joe Stummer of the Clash.

Jim Jarmusch was another figure on the edges of the New

Cinema. He had played in the Del-Byzanteens with James Nares and
worked on Eric Mitchell’s “Red Italy” before he shot his first feature,
“Permanent Vacation” in 1980. Ostensively his NYU graduate thesis
project (the university refused to graduate Jarmusch because of the
film’s length), “Permanent Vacation” (for which Sara Driver was a
production manager and assistant director) is a definite by-product of
Jarmusch’s involvement with No Wave film. The themes of
displacement and alienation resonated from the works of Amos Poe
and Eric Mitchell, who also appeared in the film along with Driver, John
Lurie, Evelyn Smith, Chris Parker and Frankie Faison (later in
mainstream films like “C.H.U.D.”, “Manhunter”, “Silence of the
Lambs”, “Hannibal” and “Red Dragon”). While attending NYU,
Jarmusch studied under legendary filmmaker Nicholas Ray (“Rebel
Without a Cause”). In 1979, German New Wave filmmaker Wim
Wenders came to New York to make a film with and about Ray,
“Lightning Over Water.” Jarmusch’s contact with Wenders proved
significant, when the German filmmaker gave Jarmusch some left over
35mm B&W film stock from “The State of Things” (1982) to shoot the
short “The New World.” “The New World”, about a Lower East Side
hipster (John Lurie) and his best friend (Richard Edson, of the bands
Konk and Sonic Youth, and later in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) who
receive a visit from the hipster’s cousin (Eszter Balint), became the
first section of Jarmusch’s second feature, “Stranger Than Paradise.”
Released in 1984, “Stranger Than Paradise” was a critical and
commercial success. The New York independent film, once firmly
rooted underground, would be increasingly brought into the
mainstream, with films like Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It” (1986)
finding similar success as “Stranger Than Paradise.” Soon,
independent films from all over the country would become more and
more popular. The scene really broke in 1989 with Stephen
Soderberg’s “Sex, Lies and Videotape.” What had started in the Lower
East Side’s punk underground had reached the American popular
culture mainstream. Independent film companies began to get bought
up by major Hollywood studios, and increasingly independent films
began to resemble miniature versions of their bigger budgeted
counterparts, rather than as an outlet for new voices and visions. In
New York, the film community became increasingly fragmented.
Today, there is little unity among young filmmakers in New York City.
The rising cost of filmmaking, competitiveness of the post-indie world
of film, discontinuation of super-8 sound film by Kodak and the lack of
a unifying scene to unite people have resulted in a increasing focus on
the work of the individual, as opposed to a community of filmmakers
working together. Meanwhile, the work of the No Wave scene has
remained more or less ignored by the mainstream. Recently,
however, Amos Poe’s “Blank Generation”, “Unmade Beds” and “The
Foreigner” have been released on DVD. Hopefully, young filmmakers
will see these films and want to find out more of what they’re all
about. Perhaps these young filmmakers will discover the work of the
No Wave, and see how much power a community or artists working
together can have. And perhaps, if this happens, the underground will
go back underground and begin again.

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