Cinema of Transgression
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The Cinema of Transgression is a term coined by Nick Zedd in 1985 to describe a New York City based underground film movement, consisting of a loose-knit group of like-minded artists using shock value and humor in their work. Key players in this movement were Nick Zedd, Kembra Pfahler, Jack Waters, Casandra Stark, Beth B, Tommy Turner, Richard Kern and Lydia Lunch, who in the late 1970s and mid 1980s began to make very low budget films using cheap 8 mm cameras.
An important essay outlining Zedd's philosophy on the Cinema of Transgression is the Cinema of Transgression Manifesto[1], published pseudonymously in the Underground Film Bulletin (1984-90).
Perhaps the most famous transgressive artist, Richard Kern, began making films in New York with actors Nick Zedd and Lung Leg. Some of them were videos for artists like the Butthole Surfers and Sonic Youth.
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[edit] Quotes
"We propose that all film schools be blown up and all boring films never be made again." - Nick Zedd in the Cinema of Transgression Manifesto.
[edit] Precursors
The Cinema of Transgression shares a legacy with underground film-makers Jack Smith, Andy Warhol, John Waters and Kenneth Anger. It evolved directly out of the New Cinema or No Wave Film movement, which was related to, and the cinematic extension of, the then thriving New York Punk and No Wave musical movements. Often, although by no means exclusively, musicians of the period, including Arto Lindsay, Pat Place, Klaus Nomi, and Lydia Lunch, acted in these films.
[edit] See also
[edit] Reference
Jack Sargeant's Deathtripping: The Cinema of Transgression, is a comprehensive account of this movement.
