Richard Kern
Directing
Biography
Richard Kern is a New York underground filmmaker, writer and photographer. He first came to underground prominence as part of the underground cultural explosion in the East Village of New York City in the 1980s, with erotic and experimental films featuring underground personalities of the time such as Lydia Lunch, David Wojnarowicz, Sonic Youth, Kembra Pfahler, and Henry Rollins. Like many of the musicians around him, Kern had a deep interest in the aesthetics of extreme sex, violence, and perversion. He was one of the leading lights of the Cinema of Transgression movement.
Known For
In the years before Ronald Reagan took office, Manhattan was in ruins. But true art has never come from comfort, and it was precisely those dire circumstances that inspired artists like Jim Jarmusch, Lizzy Borden, and Amos Poe to produce some of their best works. Taking their cues from punk rock and new wave music, these young maverick filmmakers confronted viewers with a stark reality that stood in powerful contrast to the escapist product being churned out by Hollywood.
Blank City
Seasoned photographer Richard Kern, best known for his images of scantily-clad, amateur models, travels around the globe to interview and shoot hundreds of women in their homes and apartments, capturing them even during their most intimate moments, including everything from brushing their teeth topless to lying naked in bed.
Shot By Kern
A look at the life and work of Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki and his impact on Japanese culture.
Arakimentari
The life and times of Baltimore film maker and midnight movie pioneer, John Waters.
Divine Trash
Lydia Lunch and Richard Kern's first collaborative effort, The Right Side of My Brain, is a glimpse into the world of unsatiable female lust, narrated by Lydia Lunch. The film was initially dismissed and dismayed by critics such as J. Hoberman, but the criticism of The Right Side of My Brain received only pushed the two to go one step further with Fingered (1986).
The Right Side of My Brain
A fan tries to get an artist's attention by literally coming apart.
Stray Dogs
In the first half of the movie Nick Zedd has a rough sexual playtime with two young women. In the second half, whilst dressed in drag, he attempts to fellate a too-drunk Rick Strange. All the while, Killdozer's 'King Of Sex' grinds away on the soundtrack.
King of Sex
An unattractive social outcast (Jeff Strong) visits a stranger (Lara Phillips) in prison after setting off the events that landed her there.
Bullet on a Wire
Cinema of Transgression pioneers and participants (Lydia Lunch, Lung Leg, Nick Zedd, etc.) perform a series of acts as they submit to director Richard Kern's camera. Originally created for DTNY acid parties; Submit to Me was eventually edited down to 10 minutes and given an accompanying score.
Submit to Me
Elizabeth bristles at the religious directives of her parents, asserting her right to personhood outside demure hairstyles and turkey dinners, constructing voodoo dolls and entertaining other manners of dark drawing in her dank emo-den. When confronted with the humanity and hypocrisy of her tormentors, the young antihero vanquishes their belief systems (and bodies) asserting, "You killed me first!"
You Killed Me First
A collection of Marilyn Manson's music videos.
Marilyn Manson: Lest We Forget
“I Hate You Now” is about when you’re in a relationship, and the person you’re in a relationship with starts doing everything you do. So in the film the guy has a burned up face, and his girlfriend burns her face so she can be like him. — Richard Kern
I Hate You Now
In the unsettling, absurdist SIMONLAND, a grotesque, televangelist-style demagogue leads his studio audience and isolated viewers through a psychotic game of Simon Says with twisted results.
Simonland
A series of short films by Richard Kern: Stray Dogs, Woman At The Wheel, Thrust In Me, & I Hate You Now.
Manhattan Love Suicides
A down-on-his-luck adult film star sees a chance to make a comeback via a lesbian documentary film-maker, but she is exploiting him to get financial backing for her pet project.
Super 8½
This documentary features interviews with Ian MacKaye (Fugazi), J Mascis (Dinosaur jr.), John John Jesse (Demonic Erotic painter), Jim Rose (Jim Rose Sideshow), Jim Thirwell (Foetus), Lydia Lunch, Mike Watt (Minutemen), Richard Kern (Filmmaker), Ron Ashet
D.I.Y. or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist
God Is in the T.V. is the second video album by Marilyn Manson. It features all 13 music videos Marilyn Manson spawned between July 1994 and November 1999, as well as uncensored bonus footage from the production of "The Dope Show" music video and nearly an hour of live and backstage footage from the Rock Is Dead tour.
Marilyn Manson: God Is In the TV
A scattershot documentary about punk rock film makers in New York, with contributions from Lydia Lunch, Henry Rollins, Richard Kern, Beth B, Nick Zedd and many others. A love letter to the New York Underground.
No Age New York
A documentary about composer/producer/performer JG Thirlwell and his musical alter-egos, including Foetus, Steroid Maximus and Manorexia. Featuring interviews with Thirlwell, Matt Johnson (The The), Alex Hacke (Neubauten), Michael Gira (Swans), Richard Kern, Lydia Lunch and more.
NYC Foetus
In 1991, a long-form music video version of Goo was released on VHS and LaserDisc. A music video for each song from the album was included; the track listing was identical to that of the original album.