20 Dec 2008
A rare chance to see Don Letts' original Punk Rock Movie, first shown at the ICA in 1977. Shot on Super-8 during the now legendary '100 Days' of the Roxy Club in 1976, the film captures the utter frenzy of the emergence of punk - the music, the bands, the fashion, the lifestyle. Featuring Sham 69, Subway Sect, Wayne County and the Electric Chairs, Generation X, The Clash and - in their most powerful filmed performance to date - the Sex Pistols. Screening with Penelope Spheeris's classic 1984 dramatisation of LA's squatter punks.
Produced by Roger Corman, Suburbia follows a group of punks who scandalise one of LA's seedier neighbourhoods. It's fast and full of violent action, with music from TSOL and The Vandals, plus the acting debut of Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Dir Don Letts, UK 1976/77, 80 mins, Cert 15 / Dir Penelope Spheeris, US 1983, 95 mins, Cert 18