FROM 4tht OCTOBER TO 9th DECEMBER, 2025
NO WAVE CINEMA: CINEMA THAT WENT AGAINST EVERYTHING. By RAFA CERVERA
No wave emerged in New York at almost the same time as punk did in England. It was not exclusively a musical movement, but rather a trend that sought to destroy any convention related to art and distort rock & roll beyond recognition. When people talk about no wave, they mainly talk about music, when in reality it was a two-headed beast. The body was made up of a series of characters who formed incendiary bands one day, and the next were performing or holding the camera in one of those underground productions. It was so corrosive that it died out after three or four years. That’s why there are very few groups that can be considered part of that scene. Those who went down in history did so because they left recorded albums: Mars, DNA, Contortions, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Theoretical Girls, Red Transistor. Others never got beyond offering chaotic performances in rock clubs and art galleries. It was always arid and difficult music. It took decades for its influence to reach popular music.
No wave cinema created an equally small and transgressive audiovisual corpus. It emerged in the mid-1970s in the neighborhoods of downtown Manhattan, at the hands of a group of young people who, attending concerts at Max’s Kansas City and CBGB, understood that they could invent a form of expression outside of academicism. Vivienne Dick, one of the leading directors of no wave cinema, says that it was music that drove her and her peers to make films. Another pioneer, Beth B, agrees, deciding that it was better to forget what she had been taught at art school and start filming and learning as she went along, just as those bands did every time they took to the stage.
No wave musicians and filmmakers shared the same aesthetic. It was basically a creatively promiscuous scene in which musicians were also actors and directors ended up playing with bands or forming their own. The films embraced the underground techniques of the 1960s, but rejected their more abstract side. They were the product of do it yourself, the emblematic philosophy of punk. They were raw, aggressive, technically ramshackle films set in New York, which at the time was facing its own decline due to economic and political neglect. They portrayed the harshness of an area populated by beggars, criminals, and artists who took advantage of low rents to live in an inhospitable city. It was a free and wild cinema that went against everything that was established.
Amos Poe is said to have been the first no wave director because he filmed bands from the first generation of New York punk (Patti Smith, Ramones, Jayne County…) and released the iconic Blank Generation in 1976. Eric Mitchell (The Foreigner, 1977) and Jamie Nares (Rome ’78) followed shortly thereafter. John Lurie, leader of The Lounge Lizards, made his directorial debut in 1979 with Men In Orbit. Gordon Stevenson, bassist for Teenage Jesus, shot Ecstatic Stigmata (1980), starring Mirielle Cervenka, sister of Exene, singer of the Californian band X. Jim Jarmusch—who founded the band The Del Byzanteens with Nares—is perhaps the director of this generation who has had the most exposure in commercial cinema, although he has never stopped working with independent production companies. But we mustn’t forget that Beth B continues to film and make viewers uncomfortable, as does Vivienne Dick, author of titles that are authentic feminist manifestos in an era when feminism was not yet detectable in art. One of the great qualities of no wave is that it was a laboratory of equal ideas. Its other great merit is that its discourse has not yet been assimilated and swallowed up by the industry that grinds everything up and recycles it.
BLANK CITY
DATE: 4 NOVEMBER
TIME: 8:00 PM
YEAR: 2010
DIRECTOR: Céline Danhier
DURATION: 94′
COUNTRY: EEUU
GENRE: Documentary
VOSE
Blank City is a 2010 American documentary film directed by Celine Danhier about the punk rock scene in the late 1970s in downtown New York City, where there was a wave of independent do-it-yourself cinema known as the No Wave Cinema movement.
Today, Manhattan is famous for its high rents, overexposed landmarks, and overly stylish fashion. However, in the late 1970s, it was plagued by rats, crime, and filth—a place in the United States where immigrants, the poor, and artists were deposited. Music, art, fashion, and cinema flourished, fueled by drugs, fads, feuds, and a significant amount of madness.
Opening of the series with a discussion led by Rafa Cervera
TV PARTY
DATE: 11 NOVEMBER
TIME: 8:00 PM
YEAR: 2005
DIRECTOR: Danny Vinik
DURATION: 94’
COUNTRY: EEUU
GENRE: Documentary
Documentary directed by Danny Vinik about the TV Party program, which aired on cable television from New York City between 1978 and 1982.
The program is part of the No Wave Cinema movement. Glenn O’Brien was the host of TV Party, Chris Stein, co-founder of the pop band Blondie, was the co-host, and Walter “Doc” Steding was the director of the program’s orchestra. Amos Poe was the director. Fab Five Freddy (Fred Brathwaite) was sometimes the cameraman and guest. Bobby Grossman was the photographer. Guests on the show included Mick Jones, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and David Byrne, among others.
ROME ’78
DATE: 18 NOVEMBER
TIME: 8:00 PM
YEAR: 1978
DIRECTOR: Jamie Nares
DURATION: 82’
COUNTRY: EEUU
GENRE: Drama
VOSE
Rome ’78 is a film directed by Jamie Nares in 1978, which delves into a surreal and experimental reinterpretation of ancient Rome. Through a unique approach, the film explores themes of decadence and power, using New York as a backdrop to recreate the ancient imperial capital.
Rome ‘78 is Jamie Nares’ first narrative film. Also conceived as a parody of Hollywood historical dramas, the film, like Warhol’s masterpieces from his sound stage period, includes long and delirious dialogues. New York becomes a fictional Rome (filmed in neoclassical buildings), and the characters, dressed in improvised costumes, live a Roman life of political intrigue, flirtation, and Dionysian dancing.
VORTEX
DATE: 25 NOVEMBER
TIME: 8:00 PM
YEAR: 1982
DIRECTOR: Beth B & Scott B
DURATION: 90’
COUNTRY: EEUU
GENRE: SUSPENSE
VOSE
Vortex is the fifth film by the directing duo Beth and Scott B, starring James Russo and Lydia Lunch. It was also the first film they shot in 16mm, marking the beginning of a new phase that took them from the underground to independent cinema.
Vortex is a take on film noir in which the antihero becomes an antiheroine thanks to Lydia Lunch.
A film noir atmosphere is created to show Detective Lunch making her way through the plans of a businessman seeking government defense contracts through real corporate wars and the manipulation of politicians.
BLACK BOX + GUERILLERE TALKS
DATE: 2 DECEMBER
TIME: 8:00 PM
YEAR: 1978 // 1979
DIRECTOR: Vivianne Dick // Beth B & Scott B
DURATION: 21′ // 28′
COUNTRY: EEUU
GENRE: Documentary
Guerillere Talks is a 1978 film directed by Vivienne Dick. It explores the lives and experiences of several women through a series of intimate monologues and disruptive performances. The work is a raw and authentic portrait of the urban subculture of the time, notable for its focus on female expression and artistic experimentation.
Black Box is a 1978 American short film directed by Scott B and Beth B and starring Lydia Lunch and Bob Mason. A man is tortured by his girlfriend and then locked inside a black box. According to critics, it is a terrifying allegory of the social restriction of the individual.
PERMANENT VACATION
DATE: 9 DECEMBER
TIME: 8:00 PM
YEAR: 1980
DIRECTOR: Jim Jarmush
DURATION: 180’
COUNTRY: EEUU
GENRE: Drama
Written, directed, edited, and produced by Jim Jarmusch, Permanent Vacation marked his film debut.
Allie (Chris Parker), a young slacker who suffers from insomnia and is a fan of Charlie Parker’s music, wanders through the seedy underbelly of New York City and encounters a series of eccentric characters, while reflecting on the meaning of life and searching for a better place.
Closing of the cycle with a discussion led by Rafa Cervera.
