Directed by Penelope Spheeris • 1981 • United States
This riveting, unflinching, and hard-core documentary adeptly captures the spirit of a major cultural phenomenon and features performances by X, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, Germs, and Alice Bag Band. Breaking down barriers of expression and social mores, these Los Angeles punks opposed everything, giving birth to an antiestablishment view of the world that permeates today’s music, politics, social attitudes, styles, and trends. Spheeris’s film documents their deliberate reaction to the mass commercialism of music. Still burgeoning at the time, many of the punk bands first seen here have since become legendary.
Up Next in Season 1
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The Decline of Western Civilization P...
Directed by Penelope Spheeris • 1988 • United States
The second in Penelope Spheeris’s trilogy on alternative LA, THE METAL YEARS takes a fast-paced look at the outrageous heavy metal scene of the late eighties. Set in Los Angeles, the film explores the lives of struggling musicians, fans, and s...
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The Decline of Western Civilization P...
Directed by Penelope Spheeris • 1998 • United States
With the final installment of her DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION trilogy, Penelope Spheeris focuses on the gutter-punk lifestyle of homeless teenagers in Los Angeles. Turning her attention away from the famous musicians profiled in the first ...
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THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION C...
