DVD Release
Abnormal: The Sinema of Nick Zedd (1979-1999)
R1 / NTSC DVD
Rubric Records / 2002
Directors: Nick Zedd, Richard Kern
Writer: Nick Zedd
Cast: Nick Zedd, Lydia Lunch, Annie Sprinkle, Rockets Redglare
Review by James Garfield
Twelve underground films embodying actor/filmmaker Nick Zedd’s notion of the “Cinema of Transgression”, avant-garde films that avoid the bland academic approach of prior experimental cinema, and depict action that pushes the limits of what is conventionally tolerated in movies, the things that Hollywood won’t show. Transgressive films, heavily influenced by splatter and porno, pile on the sex, violence, and drug use, and depict deformed and otherwise “abnormal” looking people, challenging their usual marginalization. Watch as these ideas play out in “Tom Thumb in the Land of the Giants”, “Ecstasy in Entropy”, “Why Do You Exist”, “Whoregasm”, “War is Menstrual Envy”, “Police State”, “The Bogus Man”, “Go to Hell”, “Thrust in Me”, “Kiss Me Goodbye”, “The Wild World of Lydia Lunch”, and “I of K9”.
These short films, made over a span of 20 years, maintain a fairly consistent level of interest, with Zedd constantly sticking to his transgressive guns (well, not ALL of the films are offensive). The one time I really flinched was the footage of eye surgery played over the credits of “War Is Menstrual Envy” (which here is actually just an excerpt of a longer work). The territory we see is the more dilapidated areas of New York, and the hardened inhabitants (Zedd’s friends). Nearly every character has a chip on his/her shoulder about something. Highlights for me included the condemnation of police brutality in “Police State”, the vague science fiction conspiracy plot of “The Bogus Man” (the cloning of Jimmy Carter), and “Thrust in Me”, where Zedd plays both a woman who commits suicide and a man who comes home to her and has oral sex with the corpse. Lydia Lunch fans will enjoy “The Wild World of Lydia Lunch”, even though it’s mainly home-movie footage of her in the UK, accompanied by her voice reading letters on the soundtrack.
Obviously only for very specialized tastes: fans of experimental cinema, punk rock (the soundtrack includes Lydia Lunch and the Swans), and those looking to test their tolerance of shocking images.
