They Eat Scum + Goodbye 42nd Street

They Eat Scum
1979
Dir. Nick Zedd
With Geoffrey Carey, Donna Death, and Roy Dillard
73 min, Digital Projection
Nick Zedd's infamous Super 8 movie that inspired the Cinema of Transgression movement, "They Eat Scum" showcases the film movement's intent to shock the viewer into reconsidering society's structures. As Zedd himself put it: "If it's not transgressive, it's not underground. It has to be threatening the status quo by doing something surprising, not just imitating what's been done before."
Filled with surrealist imagery, B-movie aesthetics, and comedic absurdity, "They Eat Scum" illustrates the re-evaluation of amateur aesthetics that was the hallmark of No Wave Cinema.
Screens with
Goodbye 42nd Street
1986
Dir. Richard Kern
4 min, Digital Projection
A profile of the diverse nature of 42nd street in 1986, "Goodbye 42nd Street" contrasts this iconic street with surrealist scenes. Capturing this iconic neighborhood just before its transformation during the Giuliani era, "Goodbye 42nd Street" is an artistic remnant of a bygone Manhattan.