Source: The Story of the Beats and the Beat Generation (1999), Nico-Icon (1995), Eden (2014), Paris Is Burning (1990), Trainspotting (1996), Venus Boyz (2002), Scratch (2001), This Filthy World (2006) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Underground Culture movies.
Storyline: Filmmaker Chuck Workman charts the achievements of Beat notables Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Neal Cassady.
Plot Keywords: documentary, counterculture, american culture, rebellion, social change, cultural revolution, underground culture ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Filmmaker Susan Ofteringer profiles German model, cult figure and heroin addict Nico, nee Christa Paffgen.
Plot Keywords: documentary, biography, music, art, underground culture, avant-garde, experimental film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In 1990s France, a young literature student (Félix de Givry) begins working as a disc jockey and witnesses the rise of electronic dance music.
Plot Keywords: drama, music, french cinema, electronic music, coming of age, 1990s, club culture ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: This is a documentary of 'drag nights' among New York's underclass. Queens are interviewed and observed preparing for and competing in many 'balls'. The people, the clothes, and the whole environment are outlandish.—Robbie Smith <robsmith@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: documentary, lgbtq+, new york, 1980s, african american, identity, marginalized communities ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A wild, freeform, Rabelaisian trip through the darkest recesses of Edinburgh low-life, focusing on Mark Renton and his attempt to give up his heroin habit, and how the latter affects his relationship with family and friends: Sean Connery wannabe Sick Boy, dimbulb Spud, psycho Begbie, 14-year-old girlfriend Diane, and clean-cut athlete Tommy, who's never touched drugs but can't help being curious about them...
Plot Keywords: drugs, addiction, scotland, underground culture, punk, crime, friendship ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: This intimate look into the real world of drag kings -- women exploring their masculinity -- crosses continents, traveling through drag king nightclubs from New York to London. Through interviews and on-stage performances, every subject reveals a different reason for choosing the gender they have. The film is less a critique than an exploration of a world that is increasingly becoming mainstream, as the featured protagonists question exactly how gender works, and should work, in modern society.
Plot Keywords: documentary, lgbtq+, performance art, underground culture, new york, artists, social margins ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A feature-length documentary film about hip-hop DJing, otherwise known as turntablism. From the South Bronx in the 1970s to San Francisco now, the world's best scratchers, beat-diggers, party-rockers, and producers wax poetic on beats, breaks, battles, and the infinite possibilities of vinyl.—Doug Pray
Plot Keywords: documentary, music, music production, music history, underground culture, musicians, creativity ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: At the Harry DeJour Playhouse in New York in the mid-2000s, John Waters emerges from a confessional onto a stage littered with trash. He tells stories. After a few about his childhood and early influences, he roughly follows the chronology of his career as a film director, relating anecdotes about the making of each film and letting those stories lead him to riffs on other topics. Gay references and wry observations about people's foibles and limits are constants. Waters' looks, too, are the butt of his jokes.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: comedy, stand-up comedy, documentary, humor, satire, independent film, director ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Sub-titled "The Birth of Extreme", this documetary takes a look at the transformation of skateboarding from its former image as a land-bound pastime for surfers to its status today as an extreme and acrobatic sport in its own right. Starting from the California surf community of Dogtown, the film follows the evolution of modern skateboarding through it's 70's heyday, its decline during the 80's, and its eventual (and highly lucrative) return in the 90's.—Jean-Marc Rocher <rocher@fiberbit.net>
Plot Keywords: documentary, extreme sports, culture, history, usa, california, street culture ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A documentary about the punk band The Sex Pistols. The film tries to lighten some of the backgrounds of their way through the punk era while telling the story of the band from zero back to zero. Features lots of interviews and comments of folks who were involved.—Oliver Heidelbach
Plot Keywords: documentary, music, biography, punk, uk, rock, band ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Ghost trains and ghostly characters, figuratively speaking of course, are what run through the perpetual night of this underground metro system. Bulcsú's (Sándor Csányi) life that once was, on the surface, where the real people go home after work, who go to the movies or a fine restaurant is now replaced by the dark, cold and solitude arena of his new dwellings. He, and his motley crew of ragtag metro ticket Kontrollers must patrol the trains that run these City dwellers back and forth and with daily ritual, check that no one dare come down into their world for a free ride. With indifferent passengers, a possible love interest, a regime set on competition and to top it all a mysterious serial killer at large, Kontroll is a dark and bleak comedy of the world of the ticket inspector, who, in the end must keep this Metro system running. If not, what would be the worst that could happen, if they ever lost control? Dare you ride here for free, too?
Plot Keywords: psychological thriller, black comedy, surrealism, urban loneliness, underground world, social outcasts, crime ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: This movie portrays the drug scene in Berlin in the 1970s, following tape recordings of Christiane F. 14-year-old Christiane lives with her mother and little sister in a typical multi-story apartment building in Berlin. She's fascinated by 'The Sound', a new disco with the most modern equipment. Although legally she's too young, she asks a friend to take her. There, she meets Detlef, who's in a clique where everybody's on drugs. Step by step she gets drawn deeper into the scene.—Tom Zoerner <Tom.Zoerner@informatik.uni-erlangen.de>
Plot Keywords: drugs, teenagers, decadence, berlin, addiction, punk, music ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Cyrus, the leader of the most powerful gang in New York City, the Gramercy Riffs, calls a midnight summit for all the area gangs, with all asked to send nine unarmed representatives for the conclave. A gang called The Warriors are blamed for killing Cyrus as he gives his speech. They now have to cross the territory of rivals in order to get to their own 'hood. The Warriors slowly cross the dangerous Bronx and Manhattan territories, narrowly escaping police and other gangs every step of the way.
Plot Keywords: action, crime, thriller, new york, survival, chase, violence ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: British punk duo Sleaford Mods have been called "the voice of Britain" by their fans, "Britain's angriest band" by the Guardian and "The world's greatest rock 'n' roll band" by Iggy Pop. "Bunch of Kunst" follows them on their two-year journey from Nottingham bedroom recording sessions to chart success.
Plot Keywords: documentary, music, punk, band, germany, biography, independent film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Two punks live in Salt Lake City. The film covers their all-day routine. The realism of the character-narrated movie may be discussed. One of the punks gets ill, stays in hospital for three weeks, comes out again. Three parties are covered and one concert including a fight between punks, rednecks and others.
Plot Keywords: social critique, 1990s, identity crisis, dark comedy, coming of age, drug culture, violence ...
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