BETH B’s DOCUMENTARY
LYDIA LUNCH: NYT Critic’s Pick—The New York Times
Upcoming Showings (Physical)
THE WAR IS NEVER OVER OPENS TODAY
AT
NEW YORK’S IFC CENTER
FURTHER SCREENINGS TO OPEN NATION-WIDE IN THEATERS AND VIRTUAL CINEMAS STARTING JULY 2
“A bracing reminder that sexual self-defense can take many forms...it chronicles
how Lunch embarked on a series of musical reinventions. Viewers will marvel at a
woman who, at 60, seems just as fierce as she was 40 years ago.” —The Hollywood Reporter
Lydia Lunch: The War is Never Over, the first career-spanning documentary retrospective of the artist and spoken-word poet Lydia Lunch, opens today at New York’s IFC Center as well as nation-wide in both theaters and virtual cinemas through KinoMarquee.com. Directed by prolific No Wave filmmaker Beth B, the film made its festival premiere last year to high acclaim as an official selection at the SXSW Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam and DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary film festival. Lunch will be on tour concurrent with the release of the film in select cities.
“It’s a treasure trove that long-time fans will love.” Film Threat
“A wild and impactful documentary...Portrait of a punk priestess, through its feminist
commitment, its avant-garde music and its nihilistic poetry.”—Telerama
Lydia Lunch: The War is Never Over traces Lunch’s beginnings in the late 1970s New York City downtown scene with her band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, a central pillar of the No Wave music movement, and follows her storied career as an artist and legendary spoken-word poet – touching on her many collaborations with a diverse collective of artists, writers and musicians including Alan Vega (Suicide), Hubert Selby Jr., and Nick Cave and Sonic Youth. The film blends interviews with Lydia and those in her circle with archival footage of 1970’s bands and photographs of New York City along with contemporary on-stage performances by Lunch.
“Lydia Lunch was 19 and I was 23 when we met in the late ‘70s New York music/film/art scene and brought our radical visions to the underground where we broke boundaries, simultaneously shocking and enticing our audiences with our uncensored music and films,” says Beth B in her director’s statement. “Fast forward to 2017, as I watched the ever brash and luminous Lydia Lunch performing with her extraordinary band, RETROVIRUS, I realized that I needed to make the definitive documentary about [her].”
Beth B is an award-winning director of independent feature-length documentary and narrative films whose career focuses on recasting and redefining concepts relating to the mind, the body and women’s issues. Controversial and political in approach and content, her recent films have been shown at venues including the Whitney Museum and the Museum of Modern Art along with festivals including Sundance, Berlin Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, SXSW and Locarno Film Festival. She has also served on the competition juries at the Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals.
For more information, please contact
Krista Williams,
Colin Lodewick or Carla Sacks at Sacks & Co., 212.741.1000.
IFC Center /// New York, NY /// June 30
Plaza /// Atlanta, GA /// July 9
Sun-Ray /// Jacksonville, FL /// July 9
Zeitgeist /// New Orleans, LO /// July 9
Texas Theater /// Dallas, TX /// July 15
Nuart Theatre /// Los Angeles, CA /// July 30
The Frida Cinema /// Santa Ana, CA /// August 6
Roxie Theater /// San Francisco, CA /// August 6
Hollywood /// Portland, OR /// August 7
Sound Unseen /// Minneapolis, MN /// August 11
New Haven Film Festival /// New Haven, CT /// August 14 (Beth B Films)
New Haven Film Festival /// New Haven, CT /// August 15
Amherst Cinema /// Amherst, MA /// August 24
Guild /// Albuquerque, NM /// August 28
Speed Art Museum /// Louisville, KY /// September 12
Upcoming Showings (Virtual)
Brattle /// Cambridge, MA /// July 2
Space Gallery /// Portland, ME /// July 2
Winnipeg Film Group /// Winnipeg /// July 2
Cleveland Cinematheque /// Cleveland, OH /// July 2
Denver Film Society /// Denver, CO /// July 2
Roxie Theater /// San Francisco, CA /// July 2
WFMU /// Jersey City, NJ /// July 2
Downing Film Center /// Newburgh, NY /// July 2
ACME /// Lambertville, NJ /// July 2
Indie Memphis /// Memphis, TN /// July 2
O Cinema /// Miami, FL /// July 2
Artsquest Steelstacks /// Bethlehem, PA /// July 2
Film Streams /// Omaha, NE /// July 2
Alexander Valley Film /// Cloverdale, CA /// July 2
Loft /// Tuscon, AZ /// July 9
Music Box /// Chicago, IL /// July 9
Cinema Arts Centre /// Huntington, NY /// July 9
Zeitgeist /// New Orleans, LO /// July 9
UC Bouler Int’l Film /// Boulder, CO /// July 14
Media Arts /// San Diego, CA /// July 16
VIFF /// Vancouver /// July 16
Varsity /// Davis, CA /// July 23
Parkway /// Baltimore, MD /// July 23
Film Society of Summit /// Summit, NJ /// July 23
Live Appearances
TV Eye /// New York, NY /// July 2*
Moroccan Room /// Los Angeles, CA /// July 29†
Nuart Theatre /// Los Angeles /// July 31
Make-Out Room /// San Francisco, CA /// August 5‡
Roxie Theater /// San Francisco /// August 6‡
Café Nine /// New Haven, CT /// August 15
Stage on Herr /// Harrisburg, PA /// September 8*
Preserving Underground /// Pittsburgh, PA /// September 8*
Femme Fest Buzz Bin /// Canton, OH /// September 9*
Break Kitchen /// Chicago, IL /// September 10*
Healer /// Indianapolis, IN /// September 11*
Speed Museum /// Louisville, KY (improv) /// September 12
Southgate House /// Newport, KY /// September 13*
Fleetwoods /// Asheville, NC /// September 14*
Champion Brewing Co /// Charlottesville, VA /// September 15*
Black Cat /// Washington, DC /// September 16*
Saint Vitus /// New York, NY /// September 21*
*with Retrovirus
†with Sylvia Black and others
‡ with Eugene Robinson
Lydia Lunch: The War is Never Over
WEBSITE
