Deathtripping: The Cinema of Transgression

by Jack Sargeant (editor)

Deathtripping is an illustrated history, account and critique of the "Cinema Of Transgression", providing a long-overdue and comprehensive documentation of this essential modern sub-cultural movement and its roots in the New York art/rock and underground film scenes.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Art, Media Tie In, Photography

272 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1995

Reviews

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was definitely a deep dive into the Cinema of Transgression, well written with a good format. It seems like before the movement was given a name and mmanifesto by Nick Zedd, that there was more range and more voices. Once a movement is named and commodified, it almost always has an experation date, this was no different. It seems also that certain players came to the forefront and the anger and nihilism of the movement became the key ingredients. Once that happened, explotative tropes and sexual degradation was the order of the day. I am not saying that these themes were not important to explore, but some of the snake oil salesman moves that Todd Phillips pulled in the later years were nauseating.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for the first time maybe about 15 years ago after having wandered into a screening of Nick Zedd's short film "Police State" and becoming curious about this very underground and very local genre of film. I enjoyed it, learned quite a lot of interesting things and ended up watching the work of most of the artists in the book, particularly Cassandra Stark (also known as Casandra Stark Mele or Ro Mello)

[Daniel Levesque · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has tons of great interviews and doesn't rely heavily on "shock". An honest account of the work of our greatest transgressive filmmakers, smartly done. So many good pictures, too.

[Mike Everleth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crucial history of the rejuvenation of the underground film scene. Extremely in-depth, comprehensive and serious analysis with great interviews with all the major participants.

[Tomas Caldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive de-mythologising of the scene and its orbiting satellites, esp. in relation to its fundamental flaws and collapse (transgression as a political act, leading to notoriety, leading to inflated self-importance/fame-hunger leading to meaningless provocation/contrarianism in the name of attention-seeking - see nick zedd, a brutish contrarian asshole who made some great films but also in later life took a hard right-wing/libertarian turn and referred to RFK Jr and Joe Rogan as some of the great transgressors of the modern age - Casandra Stark Mele's interview towards the end of the book was revelatory, the highlight of the book and a drastic, beautiful demolition of the high-falutin arrogance and self-ascribed importance of some of these filmmakers - there is a politik to transgression, and there were filmmakers who used this for sincere pleas and inflamed rebellion, but the death of the movement came from the cheapening of meaning in favour of G.G. Allin horror-show provocation (I love both filmmakers, but to compare Beth B and Charles Pinion demonstrates this clearly, the Cinema of Transgression shifting from a rebellion and a cry of anguish to another arm of underground horror shock-jock (again, a style i still love dearly, but markedly a different form of expression bearing no resemblance to the original wave or even Zedd's 1985 manifesto)). Fascinating read, especially for the reasons Sargeant might not have even considered.

[Egghead · Rating 4 out of 5]

for young white people
!!!cinema of transgression!!!
documents it well.

[Lee Threlkeld · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-reading for inspiration for a couple of short film projects on the go.......the last word on a much overlooked cinema movement, deffo one of the most important for me.x