Lee Ranaldo

Acting

Lee Ranaldo

Born 1956-02-03 · Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, USA

Lee Mark Ranaldo (born February 3, 1956) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, best known as a co-founder of the rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Ranaldo at number 33 on its "Greatest Guitarists of All Time" list. In May 2012, Spin published a staff-selected top 100 guitarist list, ranking Ranaldo and his Sonic Youth bandmate Thurston Moore together at number 1.

Acting credits

Daddy Longlegs poster
6.6

After months of living a solitary existence, Lenny, 34, picks up his kids from school. Every year he spends a couple of weeks with his sons Sage, 9, and Frey, 7. Lenny hosts his kids within a midtown studio apartment in New York. During these two weeks, he must figure out if he wants to act as their father or be their friend. Ultimately, their trip upstate results in complete lawlessness taking over their lives.

Daddy Longlegs

2010

365 Day Project poster
10.0

This exhibition focuses on Jonas Mekas’ 365 Day Project, a succession of films and videos in calendar form. Every day as of January 1st, 2007 and for an entire year, as indicated in the title, a large public (the artist's friends, as well as unknowns) were invited to view a diary of short films of various lengths (from one to twenty minutes) on the Internet. A movie was posted each day, adding to the previously posted pieces, resulting altogether in nearly thirty-eight hours of moving images.

365 Day Project

2007

The State's 43rd Annual All-Star Halloween Special poster
4.0

Comedy troupe The State hosts a Halloween special on CBS.

The State's 43rd Annual All-Star Halloween Special

1995

Omega poster
6.3

Documentary about the revolutionary flamenco-rock album "Omega", composed by maestro Enrique Morente and the Granada group Lagartija Nick in 1996. A groundbreaking album with great impact on the national and international music scene in which Morente adapted songs by the singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen and he put music to poems by Federico García-Lorca.

Omega

2016

Fragments of Paradise poster
6.5

For over 70 years, Jonas Mekas, internationally known as the "godfather" of avant-garde cinema, documented his life in what came to be known as his diary films. From his arrival in New York City as a displaced person in 1949 to his death in 2019, he chronicled the trauma and loss of exile while pioneering institutions to support the growth of independent film in the United States. Fragments of Paradise is an intimate look at his life and work constructed from thousands of hours of his own video and film diaries-including never-before-seen tapes and unpublished audio recordings. It is a story about finding beauty amidst profound loss, and a man who tried to make sense of it all... with a camera.

Fragments of Paradise

2022

Velvet Suite poster
5.0

Lee Renaldo, Pascal Comelade and Ramon Prats perform a legacy-inspired suite on the Velvet Undergroud. Manuel Huerga captured the dress rehearsal and the concert with a single camera, and turned what was shot into an immersive experience.

Velvet Suite

2023

1991: The Year Punk Broke poster
6.8

David Markey's documentary of life on the road with Sonic Youth and Nirvana during their tour of Europe in late 1991. Also featuring live performances by Dinosaur Jr, Babes in Toyland, The Ramones and Gumball.

1991: The Year Punk Broke

1992

From The Basement poster
NR

From The Basement features intimate live performances from some of the finest musical artists. No hosts, no studio audience, instead the artist and their performance take center stage

From The Basement

2009

Submit to Me poster
5.2

Cinema of Transgression pioneers and participants (Lydia Lunch, Lung Leg, Nick Zedd, etc.) perform a series of acts as they submit to director Richard Kern's camera. Originally created for DTNY acid parties; Submit to Me was eventually edited down to 10 minutes and given an accompanying score.

Submit to Me

1985

Sonic Youth: Live at Campo Pequeno Lisboa poster
NR

Sonic Youth's first concert in Portugal. Recorded Live at Campo Pequeno Lisbon, Portugal July 14, 1993

Sonic Youth: Live at Campo Pequeno Lisboa

1993

Sonic Youth: Full Set From The Basement poster
NR

Enjoy Sonic Youth's full From The Basement

Sonic Youth: Full Set From The Basement

Peas and Carrots poster
NR

New York-based 16-year-old Joey Wethersby's parents were part of a 1990s one-hit wonder band. After encouraging her parents to start a new band, Joey finds herself traveling nightly to an alternate reality where everyone repeatedly says the titular three-word phrase.

Peas and Carrots

2025

Sex and Broadcasting poster
6.0

SEX AND BROADCASTING is a feature length documentary about New Jersey's WFMU, the world's strangest and most unique radio station, and one man's attempt to keep it alive in the face of recession, the persistent threat of commercial media, and the challenges that come with keeping a rebellious group of outsiders together.

Sex and Broadcasting

2014

Free Tibet poster
8.0

A film about the Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco in 1996.

Free Tibet

1998

SY NYC 12/12/01: The Demonlover Sessions poster
10.0

A fly-on-the-wall documentary about the recording of the music score by Sonic Youth.

SY NYC 12/12/01: The Demonlover Sessions

2019

Kill Your Idols poster
7.4

A 2004 documentary on thirty years of alternative rock 'n roll in NYC.Documenting the history from the genuine authenticity of No Wave to the current generation of would be icons and true innovators seeing to represent New York City in the 21st century

Kill Your Idols

2004

Hello Hello Hello: Lee Ranaldo, Electric Trim poster
6.7

Filmed during dozens of recording sessions, Hello Hello Hello is a story of the creative process - Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) collaborating with producer Raül Refree, across a year and 3,842 miles with a little help from their friends. Novelist Jonathan Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn, The Fortress of Solitude) plays writer/lyricist/muse to Ranaldo's artist/composer wanderings, across soundscapes created alongside friends and musical guest artists including Nels Cline (Wilco), Sharon Van Etten, Alan Licht, Kid Millions (Oneida), and Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth). Theirs is an unusually intimate and personal process in the creation of Ranaldo's album, Electric Trim (Mute, 2017), a bold, new sound and a lush and striking departure from Ranaldo's signature work.

Hello Hello Hello: Lee Ranaldo, Electric Trim

2017

From the Basement poster
6.0

First DVD release from this refreshingly basic UK music programme puts the music in the foreground with an impressive role call of acts. With sparse production and no filler (no host, no audience, just artist centre stage), From The Basement's eclectic line-up reads like a contemporary alternative who's who; The White Stripes, Sonic Youth, Radiohead, Thom Yorke, Albert Hammond Jr., The Shins, Beck, Damien Rice, José González, Super Furry Animals, Eels, and more.

From the Basement

2009

Desolation Center poster
9.3

The untold story of a series of Reagan-era guerrilla punk and industrial desert happenings in Southern California that are now recognized as the inspiration for Burning Man, Lollapalooza, and Coachella. Interviews and rare performance footage of Sonic Youth, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Redd Kross, Einstürzende Neubauten, Survival Research Laboratories, Savage Republic, Swans and more.

Desolation Center

2018

Sonic Youth: Screaming Fields of Sonic Love poster
NR

All of the band 80's music videos along with some live performances

Sonic Youth: Screaming Fields of Sonic Love

1995

Tibetan Freedom Concert poster
NR

Documentary surrounding the festival.

Tibetan Freedom Concert

1996

We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen poster
6.7

A feature-length documentary chronicling early '80s punk rock band the Minutemen, from their beginnings in San Pedro, California, to their demise after the death of singer D. Boon in 1985.

We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen

2005

Swans: Where Does a Body End? poster
7.9

From their roots as a brutal, confrontational industrial band, through breakups and chaos, to their odds-defying current status as one of the most accomplished and ambitious bands in the world, one whose concerts are more like ecstatic rituals than nostalgic trips. SWANS has always been a collection of singular performers, but there's been one constant since its formation in 1982--singer, songwriter Michael Gira. 'Where Does a Body End?' is a SWANS documentary with unfettered access to hundreds of hours of Gira/SWANS archives of never-seen-before recordings, videos, and photographs. An unfiltered story of a life in the arts, frequent difficulty spanning decades without a safety net, creating work because Gira says "What else am I going to do?"

Swans: Where Does a Body End?

2019

Sonic Youth: Gila Monster Jamboree poster
NR

This was a concert video released thru Sonic Death, filmed on January 5th, 1985 in the Mojave Desert. This was SY's first west coast excursion.

Sonic Youth: Gila Monster Jamboree

1985

Behind the camera