PUNK AT 50
1 film in this collection
Half a century ago, The Damned and the Sex Pistols released their first singles, and everything shifted. A nihilistic and violent reaction to the grim artifice of late capitalism, social conformity, and lost future.
This year, The Nickel will explore punk filmmaking in all its forms, from raw DIY independent filmmaking to features that incapsulate the chaotic refusal of order.
Punk cinema is less about style than stance. It refuses polish, refuses comfort, refuses explanation. Fifty years in, these films are still raw and alive.
This year, The Nickel will explore punk filmmaking in all its forms, from raw DIY independent filmmaking to features that incapsulate the chaotic refusal of order.
Punk cinema is less about style than stance. It refuses polish, refuses comfort, refuses explanation. Fifty years in, these films are still raw and alive.
MADAME WANG'S (VHS SCREENING)
(1981, USA, Paul Morrissey)
96 mins18
PART OF OUR PUNK AT 50! SEASON
Adrift between ideology and fantasy, a young East German arrives in Los Angeles with an unusual political mission. Convinced that American actress and activist Jane Fonda can help spark a revolutionary movement, he travels to California hoping to recruit her to the communist cause. Instead, he finds himself stranded without papers or clear direction, wandering through a chaotic landscape of fringe characters, street hustlers, and outsiders living on the margins of the city.
As his revolutionary ambitions begin to fade, he drifts into the underground punk scene surrounding a restaurant and music venue run by the eccentric Madame Wang. Immersed in a world of flea markets, improvised performances, and unlikely companions, the visitor gradually abandons his original political purpose and becomes entangled in the strange rhythms of American counterculture.
Written and directed by Paul Morrissey, Madame Wang’s presents an offbeat satire of Cold War politics and American consumer culture, blending absurd humor with a portrait of Los Angeles subcultures in the early 1980s.
Introduced by programmer and filmmaker, Craig Williams
Adrift between ideology and fantasy, a young East German arrives in Los Angeles with an unusual political mission. Convinced that American actress and activist Jane Fonda can help spark a revolutionary movement, he travels to California hoping to recruit her to the communist cause. Instead, he finds himself stranded without papers or clear direction, wandering through a chaotic landscape of fringe characters, street hustlers, and outsiders living on the margins of the city.
As his revolutionary ambitions begin to fade, he drifts into the underground punk scene surrounding a restaurant and music venue run by the eccentric Madame Wang. Immersed in a world of flea markets, improvised performances, and unlikely companions, the visitor gradually abandons his original political purpose and becomes entangled in the strange rhythms of American counterculture.
Written and directed by Paul Morrissey, Madame Wang’s presents an offbeat satire of Cold War politics and American consumer culture, blending absurd humor with a portrait of Los Angeles subcultures in the early 1980s.
Introduced by programmer and filmmaker, Craig Williams
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