No wave cinema

No Wave Cinema

Years active	1976-1985
Location	United States
Influences	American independent film French New Wave American underground film [1][2][3]

No wave cinema was an underground filmmaking movement that flourished on the Lower East Side of New York City^[4] from about 1976 to 1985. Associated with (and partially sponsored by) the artists’ group Collaborative Projects,^[5] no wave cinema was a stripped-down style of guerrilla filmmaking that emphasized dark edgy mood and unrehearsed immediacy above many other artistic concerns – similar to the parallel no wave music movement in its raw and rapid style.^[6]

Prominent figures

No wave cinema, also known as New Cinema (after a short-lived screening room on St. Mark’s Place run by several filmmakers on the scene), had a significant impact on underground film. They were influenced by the works of Andy Warhol, John Cassavetes, George Kuchar, Ron Rice, John Waters and Jack Smith.^[7][8][9] The No wave cinema of Scott B and Beth B, Eric Mitchell, Jamie Nares, Amos Poe, Diego Cortez and others spawned a new generation of independent filmmaking in New York that included Jim Jarmusch, Tom DiCillo, Steve Buscemi, and Vincent Gallo, as well as the Cinema of Transgression movement of Richard Kern, Nick Zedd, Tessa Hughes-Freeland, Kembra Pfahler, and Gordon Stevenson. Other filmmakers associated with No wave cinema included Lizzie Borden, Bradley Eros, Aline Mare, Jeanne Liotta, Charlie Ahearn, Coleen Fitzgibbon, David Wojnarowicz, Manuel DeLanda, Vivienne Dick, Jon Moritsugu, Susan Seidelman, Kathryn Bigelow, Casper Cunningham, and Casandra Stark Mele.^[10][11]

In 1978, Jamie Nares released a well-known no wave Super 8 film titled Rome 78, her only venture into feature-length, plot-driven film. Despite its large cast in period costumes, the work was not intended as a serious undertaking, as the actors interject self-conscious laughter into scenes and deliver seemingly improvised lines with over-the-top bravado. The film features no wave cinema regular Lydia Lunch along with Mitchell, James Chance, John Lurie, Judy Rifka, Jim Sutcliffe, Lance Loud, Mitch Corber, Patti Astor, artist David McDermott of McDermott & McGough, and Kristian Hoffman, among others.^[12]

Coleen Fitzgibbon and Alan W. Moore created an 11:41-minute film in 1978 (finished in 2009) of a no wave concert to benefit Colab called X Magazine Benefit, documenting performances of DNA, James Chance and the Contortions, and Boris Policeband in NYC in the late 1970s. Shot in black and white Super 8 and edited on video, the film captures the gritty look and sound of the music scene during that era. In 2013 it was exhibited at Salon 94, an art gallery in New York City.^[13]

List of notable No wave films

• The Blank Generation (1976)
• Unmade Beds (1976)
• Rome 78 (1978)
• Black Box (1978)
• The Foreigner (1978)
• The Driller Killer (1979)
• Permanent Vacation (1980)
• Underground U.S.A. (1980)
• The Offenders (1980)
• Ms. 45 (1981)
• Vortex (1981)
• Smithereens (1982)
• Born in Flames (1983)
• Mutable Fire (1984)
• Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
• The Way It Is or Eurydice in the Avenues (1985)

Sources:^{[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]}

Legacy

Like the later Dogme 95 creative movement, No Wave Cinema has been described as a defining period in low budget film production.^[31]

Stranger Than Paradise was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2002.^[32][33][34]

In 2010, French filmmaker Céline Danhier created a documentary film titled Blank City.^[35] The film presents an oral history of the no wave cinema and Cinema of Transgression movements^[36] through interviews with Jarmusch, Kern, Buscemi, Poe, Seidelman, Ahearn, Zedd, John Waters, Blondie’s Debbie Harry, hip-hop legend Fab 5 Freddy, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, and Jack Sargeant. The soundtrack includes music by Patti Smith, Television, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, James Chance and the Contortions, Bush Tetras and Sonic Youth.^[37][38]

In 2011, the Museum of Arts and Design celebrated the movement with the retrospective "No Wave Cinema", which included works by Jarmusch, Kern, Mitchell, Poe, Zedd, Scot and Beth B., Lizzie Borden, Edo Bertoglio and Kembra Pfahler.^[39][40]

In 2023, the No Wave movement, including No Wave Cinema, received institutional recognition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris with a Nicolas Ballet curated exhibition entitled Who You Staring At: Culture visuelle de la scène no wave des années 1970 et 1980 (Visual culture of the no wave scene in the 1970s and 1980s). Featured in the installation was Scott B and Beth B's 11 minute film Letters to Dad (1979). An interview with Beth B, No Wave film screenings and musical performances, with three recorded conversations with No Wave artists, were included as part of the exhibition.^[41]

See also

• Cinema of the world
• Experimental film
• Grindhouse
• Vulgar auteurism

References

1. Stories from New York: No Wave Cinema posted by Monica Delgado for Fandor on Vimeo
2. New York Noise: Tales from the No Wave - Northwest Film Fourm
3. (PDF) No Wave Film and the Music Documentary: From No Wave Cinema “Documents” to Retrospective Documentaries|Michael Goddard - Academia.edu
4. No Wave and Independent Film -Gallery 98 Bowery
5. Marc Masters, (2007) No Wave, Black Dog Publishing, London, p. 141
6. NO WAVELENGTH: THE PARA-PUNK UNDERGROUND: Village Voice film critic Jim Hoberman discusses the New York New Wave film scene, including lo-fi super 8 films of Vivienne Dick
7. Stories from New York: No Wave Cinema posted by Monica Delgado for Fandor on Vimeo
8. New York Noise: Tales from the No Wave - Northwest Film Fourm
9. (PDF) No Wave Film and the Music Documentary: From No Wave Cinema “Documents” to Retrospective Documentaries|Michael Goddard - Academia.edu
10. No Wave · Feminist Cinemas · Senses of Cinema
11. (PDF) No Wave Film and the Music Documentary: From No Wave Cinema “Documents” to Retrospective Documentaries|Michael Goddard - Academia.edu
12. "Rebellion of the quiet Retrospective of James Nares, No Wave's subtlest filmmaker". Archived from the original on 2013-09-01. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
13. COLEEN FITZGIBBON AND ALAN MOORE: X MAGAZINE BENEFIT COLAB 1978, 2009
14. BAM film series 'Punks, Poets, and Valley Girls' highlights '80s women filmmakers - Brooklyn Vegan
15. Smithereens Criterion Collection Blu-ray Release|Paracinema
16. Documentary Blank City Chronicles NYC's Gritty "No Wave" Film Movement of the '70s - Cinema Retro
17. museum of arts and design
18. 10 Films You Can't Miss at Cinefamily's Month-Long Homage to '80s Indie Cinema Los Angeles Magazine
19. Free Press Houston » Blank City and New York's No Wave
20. Northwest Film Fourm :: Series Archive
21. (PDF) No Wave Film and the Music Documentary: From No Wave Cinema “Documents” to Retrospective Documentaries|Michael Goddard - Academia.edu
22. Film International
23. Shooting Blanks: A History of No Wave Cinema - Obsessed Magazine
24. Schlock & Awe: THE DRILLER KILLER —— Nerdist
25. 10 essential films from the No Wave cinema movement|Far Out Magazine
26. Ms. 45 (1981)|MUBI
27. Ms. 45 - Fandor: Keyframe Editorial Hub for Cinephiles
28. The Grime and the Glamour: NYC 1976-1990
29. Blu-ray Review: Abel Ferrara's The Driller Killer on Arrow Video - Slant Magazine
30. No Wave & Cinema of Transgression|Mudam
31. Coulter, Tomas (2004). Low-budget movements that defined cinema. p. 26.
32. STRANGER THAN PARADISE (1984) – A CHARMINGLY LOW-KEY CLASSIC OF AMERICAN INDIE CINEMA - High On Films
33. Films Selected for the National Film Registry in 2002 (January 2003) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin
34. Filmmaker Retrospective: The Independent Cinema of Jim Jarmusch — Taste of Cinema
35. Blank City trailer posted by the film's distributor e2 films on YouTube
36. Blank City (2010)- IMDb
37. "Blank City" – official film website
38. NEW YORK NO WAVE – CHICAGO POST ROCK : DEUX VILLES, DEUX SCÈNES
39. "No Wave Cinema". Museum of Arts and Design. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
40. Robbins, Christopher. "See Classic, Rare New Wave/No Wave/Punk At Museum Of Art And Design". Gothamist. Gothamist, LLC. Archived from the original on 9 May 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
41. [1] Who You Staring At?: Visual culture of the no wave scene in the 1970s and 1980s February 1 – June 19, 2023, Film, Video, Sound and Digital Collections

External links

• Official Myspace page for "Llik your idols", a documentary about the Cinema of Transgression & No Wave Cinema
• 1996 Vanity Fair article by J. Hoberman
• Video essay by Fandor