Filmmaker Beth B’s documentary film Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over is described as a deep dive into the life and work of the fearless musician and performer Lydia Lunch. The documentary will open on June 30 in New York at IFC Center
Lunch hit the late 1970s New York City downtown scene with the band Teenage Jesus And The Jerks, a central pillar of the No Wave music movement and went on to forged paths in the underground film scene as a director, actor, lecturer and women’s empowerment coach, feminist writer and spoken word performer.
Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over Over by Beth B is the first career-spanning documentary retrospective of Lydia Lunch’s confrontational, acerbic and always electric artistry. As New York City’s preeminent No Wave icon from the late 70’s, Lunch has forged a lifetime of music and spoken word performance devoted to the utter right of any woman to indulge, seek pleasure, and to raise voice in a rage as loud as any man. The film frames Lunch’s work through the lens of the various philosophical themes that have obsessed her for years to enlighten and empower women to voice the unheard and to break the cycle of violence toward women throughout the world. Lydia Lunch is the psycho sexual transgressive who revoked patriarchal expectations of what a female performer might mean, while forging a vocabulary of rare emotional honesty, philosophy and humor.
The film includes interviews with Lydia Lunch and longtime collaborators and colleagues including: Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth; performance artist Kembra Pfahler; Teenage Jesus bass player, Jim Sclavunos; Donita Sparks from L7; famed DJ and musician Nicolas Jaar; Art Critic Carlo McCormick; Filmmaker Richard Kern and a long list of other groundbreaking artists connected to Lunch’s past and present. Filming in rehearsal and on tour with her band Retrovirus, the behind-the-scenes footage reveals a side of Lunch’s personality that has been unseen. Her warmth and generosity in private interactions along with hilarious banter in the rehearsal studio with band members contrasts wonderfully with her brash, assaultive style of performance. The film is not only about Lunch, but about the scene that she helped spawn, continues to grow and influence, and the creative people who join her in creating a new vision of woman.
Watch the trailer for Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over.
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