Cinema of Transgression

The Cinema of Transgression is a term coined by Nick Zedd in 1985 to describe a New York City–based underground film movement, consisting of a loose-knit group of artists using shock value and black humor in their films.^[1][2] Key players in this movement were Zedd, Kembra Pfahler, Tessa Hughes-Freeland, Casandra Stark, Beth B, Tommy Turner, Jon Moritsugu, Manuel DeLanda, David Wojnarowicz, Richard Kern, and Lydia Lunch, who in the late 1970s and mid-1980s began to make very low-budget films using cheap 8 mm cameras.

Zedd outlined his philosophy on the Cinema of Transgression in The Cinema of Transgression Manifesto, published under the name Orion Jeriko in the zine The Underground Film Bulletin (1984–90).^[3]

Cinema of Transgression continues to heavily influence underground filmmakers. In 2000, the British Film Institute showed a retrospective of the movement's work introduced by those involved in the production of the original video films.^[4]

List of notable films

• Why Do You Exist (Nick Zedd, 1998)
• You Killed Me First (Richard Kern, 1985)
• Where Evil Dwells (David Wojnarowicz and Tommy Turner, 1985)
• Raw Nerves: A Lacanian Thriller (Manuel DeLanda, 1980)
• Mommy, Mommy, Where's My Brain? (Jon Moritsugu, 1986)
• Llik Your Idols (Angélique Bosio, 2007)
• Wrecked on Cannibal Island (Casandra Stark, 1986)
• Stigmata (Beth B., 1991)
• Blank City (Celine Danhier, 2009)
• Nymphomania (Tessa Hughes-Freeland and Holly Adams, 1993)^[5]
• Tromeo and Juliet (Lloyd Kaufman, 1996)

See also

• Cinema of the world
• No Wave Cinema
• Transgressive art
• Extreme cinema
• Vulgar auteurism