The true inheritors of punk and the true independent cinema

"With stolen guitars, or used guitars
So the tape would understand
Without even the slightest hope
Of a thousand sales." (strummer/jones)

A group of German fantasy geeks have made a movie based on the Terry Prachett novel Lords and Ladies. (Link via /.) This is the English-language trailer in all its cheap special effects glory. Until now, I had never heardof Prachett, and was always more of a sci-fi nerd than a fantasy nerd. Still, I salute these geekazoids, and declare them, and others like them, to be the unlikely heirs of all that was true and noble and good about punk rock.

link for rest of text


Get this straight: these people made a full length movie for 300 euros. They did it because they wanted to. They are now selling a DVD, on their own. That is so punk rock.

Perhaps because I grew up the the Washington DC scene, I have always belonged to the camp that said that the important thing about punk was that it created an alternative network of bands, labels and clubs motivated solely by love of the music and more importantly the community the music created. Punk said that it was better to be a producer than a consumer of art, even if that meant that you didn't live up to the standards of virtuosity promelgated by the professionals.

Of course there are homemade movies all over the internet. The /. commentary to the Prachett movie mentions House of Cosbies hosted by channel 101, a story of a man who lives with a dozen clones of Bill Cosby which he made in his basement. Good movies seem to go away quickly, though. Cleis linked to an amazing retelling of the tale of Inanna using S&M Barbie dolls but the link seems to be dead. Once upon a time I saw a homemade episode of the original star trek. I can't find it on google anymore, and the CD I saved a copy to is scratched. (Does anyone know where this might be? It featured a guy in andorian make up, and once was linked to by /.)

added these are the geekaziods I was thinking of.

These days I see punk in the oddest of places, especially geekdom. Turns out that the xeroxed fanzines that we thought were punk inventions were really developed by sci-fi samizdat fan fiction. Who knew?

Of course the problem with so called "independent cinema" is that it never succeeded in creating seperate distribution channels from mainstream cinema. Perhaps with you, the internet, the independents will win yet.