Lee Ranaldo

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and work constructed from thousands of hours of his own video and film diaries-including never-before-seen tapes and unpublished audio recordings.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.

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.

Sonic Youth in 1991 on Neil Young's Smell the Horse tour, captured by Crazy Horse Guitar/Bass Tech Mondo aka Armando Garcia.

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.

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.

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.

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

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?"

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.

The final Sonic Youth concert

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.

For over 30 years, Martin Bisi has been recording music from his studio in Gowanus, Brooklyn. He has worked with many influential musicians, including Sonic Youth, Swans, Herbie Hancock, Brian Eno and the Dresden Dolls. Now though, he finds himself squeezed in by the approaching gentrification of his neighborhood.

A concert film of Sonic Youth performing their Daydream Nation album in full with a bonus encore of Rather Ripped songs at the ABC in Glasgow in 2007.

As a fixture of the New York music scene for 30 years, Sonic Youth performed in New York City innumerable times, and served as ersatz cultural ambassadors for the city when traveling. As part of the 2019 Rooftop Films programming, Sonic Youth will present a New York-specific collection of film and videos from their private archives. Much of the material to be presented is completely unseen, threaded together with a few items which are out there in the public knowledge but here presented from the best source available to the band.

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.

The second last show on Sonic Youth's sad final stanza, a festival tour of South America that eventually took them to Chile for the Maquinaria Festival. Putting on a brave face, the band run through a set of hits with some deeper cuts as well, before replacing the planned 'White Cross' encore with a ten-minute 'Teen Age Riot'.

This DVD features 13 provocative short films by Richard Kern. Color & B&W film shorts with Lydia Lunch, Henry Rollins and more. Includes Death Valley 69 , The Right Side Of My Brain, You Killed Me First, The Bitches, The Sewing Circle, X is Y, Fingered, Horoscope, Submit to Me Now, My Nightmare, Manhattan Loves Suicides, Submit to Me, and Evil Cameraman. Music from Sonic Youth, Cop Shoot Cop, J.G. Thirwell, Butthole Surfers.

While planning the eventual DVD release for "1991: The Year Punk Broke", Dave Markey cut a 40-minute film out of unused footage to create a companion piece to include. The film was also shown to a handful of lucky audiences before the DVD's eventual release in 2011. It's an awesome bonus with tons of great footage that could have easily been in the film. These songs were probably the best to leave out of the full-length film, since 2 were brand new and still quite shaky. The only tour staple not accounted for in either film is "Mary-Christ". Here are the sources I could determine: Inhuman - ?? White Kross - 08/27/91 Bremen Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit - 08/24/91 Koln In Bloom (Nirvana) - 09/01/91 Rotterdam Eric's Trip - 09/01/91 Rotterdam (but spoken intro is from 08/25/91?) Tunic snippet - 08/27/91 Bremen Chapel Hill - 08/27/91 Bremen

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.

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

Ground breaking music videos from some of the most influential bands of the 90s Punk/Grunge scene such as the Flaming Lips, Mudhoney, Bad Brains, Afghan Whigs, Foetus Inc, Soul Asylum, American Music Club, Babes in Toyland, Dinosaur Jr and more.

Celebrating the cream of the New York rock scene, including classic performances from the Ramones, New York Dolls, Television, Blondie, Lou Reed and more. 01.New York Dolls - Jet Boy (Nov 1973) 02.Patti Smith Group - Horses (May 1976) 03.Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (Jan 1978) 04.Television - Foxhole (May 1978) 05.Ramones - Don't Come Close (Sep 1978) 06.Blondie - I'm Alway Touched By Your Presence Dear (Mar 1978) 07.Lou Reed - Waiting For The Man (Dec 1984) 08.John Cale - Dying On The Vine (Dec 1985) 09.Sonic Youth - Sugar Kane (Dec 1992) 10.Patti Smith - Because The Night (Apr 2002) 11.Lou Reed - Perfect Day (May 2003) 12.John Cale - Venus In Furs (Oct 2003) 13.David Byrne - This Must Be The Place (May 2004) 14.Antony And The johnsons - Hope There's Some One (Jun 2005) 15.The Strokes - Last Nite (Jun 2006)

A compilation of 24 music videos by Sonic Youth ranging from 1990 to 2002. Collaborators include Harmony Korine, Spike Jonze, Todd Haynes, Mark Romanek, Richard Kern, and more.

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

Sonic Youth's 2005 performance at Les Eurockéennes de Belfort festival, one of France's largest rock music festivals.

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.

Quintessential alternative rockers, Sonic Youth, celebrate free-form experimentalism while reinforcing their performance-art driven tradition in this Soundstage performance, recorded on May 7, 2003 at WTTW Grainger Studio in Chicago. The band, which settles just outside the realm of definition, delivers a part rock, part free-form noise, part avant-garde punk performance which features a new song "Sympathy for the Strawberry."

Christian demonstrates some techniques and preparations and meditates on the turntable, improvisation, and the difference between the sonic and the visual arts.

Footage from 2005’s Festival Art Rock in Saint-Brieuc, France, featuring Metric, Sonic Youth, Jeanne Balibar, and other acts.

The band performs at the Free Jazz Festival

Filmed April 12, 2003 at a benefit concert held at and for The Anthology Film Archives, the international center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of avant-garde and independent cinema. In addition to screening films for the public, AFA houses a film museum, research library and art gallery. The event, which raised money for the Archives and celebrated the life and work of avant-garde film maker Stan Brakhage, featured Sonic Youth providing an improvised instrumental collaboration with silent Brakhage’s films. The band performed with drummer/percussionist Tim Barnes (Essex Green, Jukeboxer, Silver Jews).

This portrait of the New York band Sonic Youth marking the band’s 20th anniversary covers its history from the beginnings to today. Numerous video clips and films of live gigs as well as interviews with, and reminiscences of, collaborators over the years will be used to document the musical development of one of the most innovative and influential bands of the last two decades. Contemporaries include former mentor Glenn Branca, composer and conductor of guitar symphonies which had a seminal influence on participating musicians such as Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore, who went on to become Sonic Youth’s guitarists. The band members‘ numerous creative arts projects and other musical activities – in particular improvised music – will be covered in depth.

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.

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

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.

Documentary surrounding the festival.

Live at Rocknacht, Germany 1996. Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from NewYork City, formed in 1981. In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City. Part of the first wave of American noise rock groups, the band carried out their interpretation of the hardcore punk ethos throughout the evolving American underground that focused more on the DIY ethic of the genre rather than its specific sound. As a result, some consider Sonic Youth as pivotal in the rise of the alternative rock and indie rock movements.

Sonic Youth play hockey arena w/ Neil Young in Reno, Nevada. Ten years earlier 7 Seconds recorded the earnest hardcore classic "Skins, Brains, & Guts" EP. The town was known as Skeeno. Audio recorded especially for the film by Society's Ills, a band consisting of Mike Watt (bass), Thurston (vocals), Dez Cadena (guitar), & David Markey (drums), who cover said EP.

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

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

Comedy troupe The State hosts a Halloween special on CBS.

Don't Bring A Dog shows a part of the New York underground music scene - rooted in the early eighties - existing apart from MTV and billboard charts. Music, interviews, sounds and pictures of the city blend into a collage. Don't Bring A Dog works like a time capsule of people and music in NY at a particular moment

In 1991, a long-form music video version of Goo was released on VHS and LaserDisc. A music video for each song from the album was included; the track listing was identical to that of the original album.

Concert given by Sonic Youth on Friday, August 7, 1998, as part of the Benicàssim International Festival. Broadcast on Sputnik Concert (Channel 33) a few weeks later that same year.

Sonic Youth's Blood on the Beach is comprised of two shows and interview clips recorded in November 1985 in Brighton, UK.

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.

Rare proshot from 1986

PBS produced documentary in two parts: the first is dedicated to saxophonist and composer John Zorn; the second is about Sonic Youth at the height of their powers in 1988.

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.

Video Fanzine featuring: Half Japanese, Redd Kross with Sky Saxon as Purple Electricity, R Kern, Sonic Youth, White Flag, Psycho Daisies, Charlie Pickett, Nick Zedd, Morbid Opera More R&R, Film, Prose. Pencil numbering indicates there was a run of 600 tapes.

Proshot footage from the band's 1988 tour.

Enjoy Sonic Youth's full From The Basement

A documentary about the recent resurgence in sales of vinyl records and its impact on the industry.

June 16, 1996 Golden Gate Park San Francisco

A video documenting Sonic Youth's performance at the Gila Monster Jamboree. Taking place in a remote location in the Mojave Desert, this was the bands first ever show on the West Coast. The bill also included bands such as Meat Puppets, Red Kross and Psi-Com.