From
7– 30 June 2002, twenty five years after the Sex Pistols’ anthem God
Save the Queen hit number one in the charts, the National Film Theatre
presents Never Mind the Jubilee: Punk at the NFT, a selection of rare
films, home movies and archive TV exploring the youthquake that was Punk.
Programmed
by Jon Savage (author of England’s Dreaming), Never Mind the
Jubilee will also feature personal appearances and performances by guests
such as Penny Rimbaud and Eve Libertine (Crass), Gary
Valentine (founder of Blondie), Captain Zip, Don Letts,
Janet Street-Porter, and many associated directors and stars.
As
Jon Savage points out in his introduction to this season, “it does
not offer a complete history of Punk – that would cover many seasons – but a
window into a turbulent, fertile subculture that dared to tell a personal and
collective truth.”
Punk
presented a real alternative for a youth culture which was sated by the official
diet of rock and pop. Parents, politicians and newspaper columnists hated it or
struggled to understand it but Punk’s provocation proved irresistible to a
generation around the world.
There
are few feature films which took on board the ethos of Punk but Derek Jarman’s
Jubilee (1977) was an extrapolation of the roots of Punk into a
mythic English fantasy world and became a vehicle for Punk style. Punk icon Jordan
(who worked in Malcolm Maclaren and Vivienne Westwood’s King’s
Road shop) took on the role of Britannia and gave Punk one of its most enduring
images. It also starred Ian Charleson, Adam Ant, Jenny Runacre
and Toyah Wilcox.
What
moving images survive of Punk are a startling array of little seen television
programmes, home movies and some remarkable documentaries made around the
leading protagonists of the scene: Don Letts’ The Punk Rock Movie
(1978) captured Punk as it happened on super-8, mainly featuring performances at
the Roxy Club by the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Heartbreakers,
The Slits and more; highlights of Captain Zip’s Video Trip
including 8mm cine-footage of the King’s Road at its height in Death is
Their Destiny (1978), a Punk version of Southern TV’s Houseparty
entitled Squatparty (1981); Sex Pistols Number 1
(1977) is a very rare film by John Tiberi and Julien Temple in
which candid super-8 material is mixed with refilmed TV footage including a
sequence of images of Queen Elizabeth II to a Sex Pistols’
soundtrack.
LWT’s
youth programme The London Weekend Show (1976-77) was one of the
first to pick up on Punk and features the Sex Pistols (before the Bill Grundy
incident) and a specially staged Sex Pistols show, also featuring Siouxsie
and The Clash.
The
Clash are also at the centre of Jack Hazan and David Mingay’s
Rude Boy (1980), a documentary shot during 1977-78, a period of
considerable political and social unrest. Don Letts’ official portrait
of The Clash, Westway to the World (2001) features all four
group members and much virtually unseen archive footage of the group in
performance. Punk in London (1977), shot by a German documentary
crew, also features The Clash alongside many other rarely filmed Punk
groups of the time.
DOA
(1981), dir. Lech Kowalski, is a legendary documentary, mainly
filmed on the Sex Pistols’ US tour of 1978 but also including a slice
of British Punk from 1978 with interviews with groups and fans.
Punk
became a worldwide phenomenon and film-makers in the USA took up the challenge
of recording it with films such as Amos Poe’s raw super-8 film of New
York’s CBGB’s scene The Blank Generation (1976), featuring Patti
Smith, Blondie and the Ramones; and Penelope Spheeris’
The Decline of Western Civilisation (1980) cataloguing the
little-filmed Los Angeles Punk scene with performances by Circle Jerks, Black
Flag, Fear and Darby Crash.
Some
of the regional variations on Punk can be discerned in Shellshock Rock
(1979), which documents the scene in Northern Ireland as an invigorating
alternative to sectarian violence. Granada Television’s So It Goes programme
hosted the first ever TV appearance of the Sex Pistols and a compilation
entitled Punk (tx.18.10.91) includes this and footage of The
Clash, Buzzcocks, The Jam, The Undertones and Joy Division.
One
of the highlights of the season will be Killing Time (Sat 15 June), an
evening devoted to proto-anarchists Crass including live music, talk from
Penny Rimbaud and Eve Libertine; and a screening of Semi-Detached,
a series of video collages assembled from live TV by Gee Vaucher and
used to illustrate six songs by Crass (please note: this contains
disturbing images).
For
an overview of the origins of the Punk scene try BBC Arena’s major
retrospective documentary Punk and the Pistols (tx.20.8.95) which
we hope to screen in its original uncensored version, featuring interviews with
all of the major figures of Punk alongside great archive footage, offering a
rare attempt to unravel both the sexual and social context of punk.
Plus,
putting the phenomenon squarely into the context of the times, we present TV77,
a selection of small screen highlights from 1977.
Jubilee
Fri
7 June 8.45 NFT1; Wed 12 June 6.20 NFT1;Sun 16 June 8.45 NFT1; Thu 20 June 6.20
Apocalyptic fantasy in which Elizabethan alchemist John Dee projects centuries into the future to monitor the activities of a wild girl gang in the midst of the 1977 urban wasteland. Partly shot on super-8 and video, and with established actors playing alongside Punk figures, Jubilee is a rare extrapolation from the ideas and energy of the period into cinema.
UK 1978/ Dir Derek Jarman. With Jordan, Adam Ant, Toyah, Jack Birkett, Richard O’Brien. 104 mins.
Assembled in 1991, Punk (tx 18.10.91) includes the key moments from So It Goes, Granada TV’s music series that provided regular and thorough coverage
of Punk. Beginning with the first ever Sex Pistols TV appearance from September 1976, this haphazardly networked show featured many Punk groups in the studio or in especially arranged live shows. Plus B’Dum B’Dum, a 1978 documentary made about Buzzcocks by Granada’s local programmes unit. With The Clash, Buzzcocks, Iggy Pop, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Jam, The Undertones, Joy Division. c80 mins total.
Film documentary shot during 1977 and 1978 by Lech Kowalski, most infamous for its slurred interview with Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungeon. The bulk of the footage comes from the Sex Pistols’ disastrous January 1978 tour of the US, but also included are random snapshots of British Punk during 1978: interviews with groups and typical fans.
USA
1981/ Dir Lech Kowalski. With X-Ray Spex, Generation X, the Rich Kids, Sham 69.
93 mins. We hope director Lech Kowalski will introduce these screenings.
A raw super-8 documentary of the CBGB’s scene filmed during 1975 and 1976. This is the principal document of that moment, only slightly marred by the unsync sound: the black and white edginess captures New York Punks’ monochrome aesthetic just as it began to move out from the Bowery to the world.
USA 1976/Dir Amos Poe. With Patti Smith, Blondie, The Ramones. 53 mins.
This
screening will be presented by Gary Valentine, founder member of Blondie.
He
will be screening rare footage and reading from his book ‘New York Rocker’
(see
book offer page 34).
Major
retrospective documentary on the origins of Punk, filmed for BBC Arena. New
interviews with Punk legends are set against rarely seen footage and, as well as
the social context, the sexual perplex of Punk is finally examined. We hope to
show the uncensored version with transmission cuts restored.
BBC
tx 20.8.95/Dir Paul Tickell. With Jordan, John Lydon, Malcolm McLaren.
93
mins. The screening on Wed 12 June will be introduced by director Paul Tickell.
Famed
colour super-8 documentary, mostly filmed during the first half of 1977, which
captures British Punk as it went mainstream. Mainly shot in the Roxy Club by DJ
Don Letts, it features performances by all the major groups. A chance to see
Punk as it happened, plus fragments from Letts’ lost 1982 documentary, The
Clash on Broadway.
UK 1978/Dir Don Letts. With Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Heartbreakers, The Slits.
c84
mins total, following the screening there will be a Q & A with Don Letts.
Punk
Home Movies or The Captain Zip Video Trip:
A
Presentation from the NFTVA -
Fri 14 June 6.20 NFT2
With his 8mm cine-camera, Phil Munnoch aka Captain Zip shot vibrant home movies capturing London’s Punk scene on the ground. Death Is Their Destiny (1978) shows the Kings Road at its height. Squatparty (1981) is a Punk version of Southern TV’s Houseparty. Also screening: Don’t Dream It - See It (1978) and Citizens Banned (1981). To be introduced by Zip himself, with Patrick Russell, bfi Keeper of Non Fiction, and accompanied by Zip’s choice of music. c75 mins total.
Rude
Boy
- Fri 14 June 8.20
NFT1; Mon 17 June 6.00 NFT1; Thu 20 June 6.00 NFT2
A
documentary shot during 1977 and 1978 that examines a period of social chaos and
incipient totalitarianism. Footage of National Front
demonstrations and black street unrest is set against the story of Ray
Gange, a Punk everykid who briefly becomes The Clash’s roadie. It also
includes storming performances from The Clash themselves.
UK
1980/Dirs Jack Hazan, David Mingay. 133 mins.
An evening in the company of various members of Crass, the seminal punk anarchists. This programme will incorporate moving image, music, discussion and spoken word performances by Eve Libertine and Penny Rimbaud. The event will feature screenings of Semi-Detached and Christ The Movie. A series of video collages, Semi-Detached was assembled and shot on VHS video using material from broadcast television between 1977-1984 by Crass visual artist Gee Vaucher. Used to illustrate Crass songs during live performances, Semi-Detached offers a prolonged polemic against fascism, militarism and consumerism and incorporates some of Vaucher’s acclaimed illustration work. Contains disturbing images. The showing of Yes, Sir, I Will will feature a vocal remix specially produced for the NFT event.
Dir
Gee Vaucher/ 1977-83
Plus
Autopsy and Choosing Death, from Crass collaborator Mick Duffield’s Christ The
Movie, along with his early short film Tea Piece.
Dir
Mick Duffield/ 1972/ 1975/ 1983c 200 mins total + interval. Tickets £9.30,
concs £7.20
Sun
16 June 6.15 NFT2; Fri 21 June 6.10 NFT1
An exciting record of Los Angeles’ little-filmed Punk scene. Mixing interviews with key players and live performances by the best known local groups, Spheeris’ first film captures an outcast subculture on the point of disintegrating in the face of music industry disinterest. She would return to the topic with her excellent Suburbia (1984). USA 1980/Dir Penelope Spheeris.
With Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Fear, Darby Crash, Claude Bessy. 100 mins.
A
rare showing of the first Sex Pistols film, assembled by John Tiberi and Julien
Temple from refilmed TV footage and candid super-8 material featuring the group.
Although only 25 minutes, this is the purest Punk film, culminating in a montage
of Queen Elizabeth II to the soundtrack of The Sex Pistols. Plus never-seen
footage also taken by Tiberi.
UK
1977/Dirs John Tiberi, Julien Temple. With Bill Grundy, Jordan and Her Majesty.
This screening will be presented by John Tiberi.
Authorised
documentary of British Punk’s most internationally successful group, filmed by
long-time collaborator Don Letts and featuring all four principal members plus
candid reflections and much little-seen archive footage. Watch as The Clash
struggle with their contradictions and growing success, before their final
dissolution in 1986.
UK
2001/Dir Don Letts. With Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper
Headon.
Sun
23 June 8.45 NFT1; Wed 26 June 6.30 NFT1
Wonderful
bubble-gum movie spoof produced by Roger Corman that endeavours to recreate the
spirit of those 50s, mild-mannered, teenage rebel movies.
Riff Randle, a Ramones-obsessed teen, tries to overcome the stick in the
mud mentality of her school teachers and their attitude to pop. Features great
performances from the Ramones, playing a range of their rousing, three-chord
anthems.
USA
1979/Dir Allan Arkush. With Vince Van Patten, Grady Sutton, Paul Bartel.
93
mins. J-Cert 12.
Mon
24 June 6.20 NFT2
Fronted by Janet Street-Porter, LWT’s youth programme was the first to cover Punk in any depth: Punk Rock (tx 28.11.76), filmed before the Bill Grundy incident, contains excellent interviews and a specially staged Sex Pistols show. See Punk before it became a national scandal and went stupid. Plus, LWT’s other reports on the Punk phenomenon, including The Kings Road from summer 1977 (tx 31.7.77).
With Sex Pistols, The Clash, Siouxsie. c80 mins.
This screening will be introduced by Janet Street-Porter.
Highlighting
Punk’s tendency to regionalism, this follows the activities of Northern
Ireland’s principal punk period label, Good Vibrations, its founder Terry
Hooley, and his bands. Here Punk, rather than the cause of more violence, is a
refuge from bitter sectarianism and religious terrorism.
UK
1979/Dir John T Davis. With Terri Hooley, The Undertones, Rudi, The Outcasts. 50
mins. Plus, appearances by Irish Punk bands on British TV in the 70s. c20 mins.
This
screening will be introduced by John T Davis.
A
documentary shot during summer and autumn 1977 by a German TV crew, by which
time Punk was both a national obsession and a lucrative music industry style.
Heavily featuring The Clash, it also includes rarely filmed Punk groups and many
interviews with Punk ‘faces’ set among atmospheric shots of metropolitan
decay.
Germany
1977/Dir Wolfgang Büld. With The Clash, The Adverts, Subway Sect.
Long dismissed as a joke, the Los Angeles and San Francisco punk scenes produced music as powerful as anything from London or New York. Curated by Vale and Marian Wallis of RE/Search Publications and original punk era fanzine ‘Search of Destroy’, this program shows material previously unscreened in the UK, including ‘Louder, Faster, Shorter’, a record of several groups - including The Avengers and The Sleepers - filmed at a benefit for striking miners. With the Avengers, the Dils. c80 mins total.
Back
in ’79, in The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle, Julien Temple explored the
punk phenomenon of The Sex Pistols to dazzling effect. Twenty years on he gives
them, erstwhile manager Malcolm McLaren, and the ethos of that era, another
affectionate but rigorous going-over. Compiled largely from the hitherto unseen
footage and present-day interviews with John Lydon and other survivors, the
result is energetic and funny.
UK-USA
2000/Dir Julien Temple. 105 mins.
One
of the most exciting aspects of British Punk was that women felt empowered to
rock. Now forgotten in today’s lad culture, punk groups like The Slits,
Siouxsie and the Banshees, X-Ray Spex and The Pretenders produced music as tough
and exciting as any of their male counterparts. As well as TV footage of Patti
Smith, The Slits, Fay Wray, Debbie Harry, Chrissie Hynde and others, the
programme will include ‘Jesus Died For Somebody’s Sins But Not Mine’, a
half-hour film about the impact of Punk on gay men and lesbians.
NFT
Box Office tel: 020 7928 3232. Unless otherwise stated, tickets are £7.20,
concs
£5.50. Members pay £1.00 less on any ticket.
website
www.bfi.org.uk