
Directing
Nick Zedd
Born — Died
1958-01-25 — 2022-02-27
Place of birth
Baltimore, Maryland
Known for
Directing
Credits
86 titles
Nick Zedd was an American filmmaker and author based in New York City. He coined the term "Cinema of Transgression" in 1985 to describe a loose-knit group of like-minded filmmakers and artists using shock value and black humor in their work. Zedd directed several super-low-budget movies, including the feature length They Eat Scum and Geek Maggot Bingo, as well as numerous short films.
Known for
5.9A nice guy has just moved to New York and discovers that he must share his run-down apartment with a couple thousand singing, dancing cockroaches.
Joe's Apartment
1996
8.0A documentary on the career of filmmaker John Waters. Featuring interviews with actors and fellow film-makers. The life and death of the actor Divine is also discussed.
In Bad Taste
1999
10.0This 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
1.0No synopsis available yet.
Impression X
2023
6.0A low-budget film crew working in New York City find themselves being preyed upon by a sexually conflicted serial killer.
Terror Firmer
1999
6.9In the years before Ronald Reagan took office, Manhattan was in ruins. But true art has never come from comfort, and it was precisely those dire circumstances that inspired artists like Jim Jarmusch, Lizzy Borden, and Amos Poe to produce some of their best works. Taking their cues from punk rock and new wave music, these young maverick filmmakers confronted viewers with a stark reality that stood in powerful contrast to the escapist product being churned out by Hollywood.
Blank City
2011
Film credits
2020s · 2 titles
2010s · 7 titles
6.9In the years before Ronald Reagan took office, Manhattan was in ruins. But true art has never come from comfort, and it was precisely those dire circumstances that inspired artists like Jim Jarmusch, Lizzy Borden, and Amos Poe to produce some of their best works. Taking their cues from punk rock and new wave music, these young maverick filmmakers confronted viewers with a stark reality that stood in powerful contrast to the escapist product being churned out by Hollywood.
Blank City
2011
2.8A young hipster wannabe-superstar dj, Phil, takes on a day job at a telemarketing company, working with crazy people, ex-prisoners, drug addicts and murderers. The time on his life begins to tick as he battles addiction, fights the law and tries to maintain the only sane thing left in his life, his girlfriend, Christine.
Scumbag
2017
6.7A docu-comedy feature film about a once-famous millionaire "business artist" forced to confront his own legendarily obnoxious behavior, while trying to find love through fame.
Con Artist
2010
NRJonas Mekas films the Halloween festivities at Anthology Film Archives in 1990.
Halloween 1990
2014
NRThe paintings of Nick Zedd come to life, and they have some disturbing things to say in this animated short.
Attack of the Particle Disruptors
2017
NRSuper 8 home-movie by legendary underground filmmaker Nick Zedd. Features his paintings, apartment, wife and son. Shot in Mexico, 2015.
Paradise Lost
2015
7.7This 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.
The Hardcore Collection
2012
2000s · 9 titles
10.0This 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
4.5In a pseudo sci-fi trip of pornographic proportions. In Other People's Mirrors, the camera feels like an extension of the unstable characters it is following, taking on a near-home-movie style documentation of street performance and improvised art. It centers around the journey of Echo Transgression, a schizophrenic sex addict, who believes that if she follows the instructions being transmitted directly into her spine, then she will escape to her own version of nirvana. Underground legend Nick Zedd plays the alien phantom of Narcissus, a secret agent who makes sure she stays on course.
Other People's Mirrors
2004
7.7A portrait of Rockets Redglare, the morbidly obese fixture of New York's underground until his death in 2001. Rockets was the sometimes bodyguard/drug dealer of Sid Vicious and Jean Michel Basquiat, as well as a talented stand-up comic and character actor who left his indelible mark wherever he went. This film chronicles Rockets' last days, hunting for methadone in Puerto Rico and telling stories from his past.
Rockets Redglare!
2003
6.7In this entrancing documentary on performance artist, photographer and underground filmmaker Jack Smith, photographs and rare clips of Smith's performances and films punctuate interviews with artists, critics, friends and foes to create an engaging portrait of the artist. Widely known for his banned queer erotica film Flaming Creatures, Smith was an innovator and firebrand who influenced artists such as Andy Warhol and John Waters.
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
2007
NRA fringe film collective of edge-dwelling New York nihilist punks and crazies whose main pathological protagonist triumvirate were voyeur smackhead Richard Kern, pouting artpunk Nick Zedd and damaged psychescream queen Lydia Lunch.
The Hardcore Collection
2000
2.0Reveals the extreme measures lawmakers and critics go through to censor avant-garde artists, who walk the fine line between art, perversion, religion and devious sexual behavior.
Kill the Artist
2007
5.0Zarathustra spends his days in his NY apartment, talking to and confiding in a pin-up on his wall, and on this occasion his delusional dialog with the porn idol results in his declaration that he must ‘descend’, as if being reluctantly chosen for some important or divine mission.
Thus Spake Zarathustra
2001
4.6Discover the New York underground scene during the 80s and throw yourself into an exciting, anarchic and repulsive world that you won't forget.
Llik Your Idols
2007
7.2Federal agents Dana Scully (Kimberly Kane) and Fox Mulder (Anthony Rosano) are sent to investigate a series of mysterious homicides. A common thread of the murders are the occult images and symbols found at the scene of each crime. With time against them, Scully and Mulder must solve the riddle that will eventually lead them to someone or something they have never encountered before.
The Sex Files: A Dark XXX Parody
2009
1990s · 11 titles
5.9A nice guy has just moved to New York and discovers that he must share his run-down apartment with a couple thousand singing, dancing cockroaches.
Joe's Apartment
1996
8.0A documentary on the career of filmmaker John Waters. Featuring interviews with actors and fellow film-makers. The life and death of the actor Divine is also discussed.
In Bad Taste
1999
6.0A low-budget film crew working in New York City find themselves being preyed upon by a sexually conflicted serial killer.
Terror Firmer
1999
6.4Not a documentary in the strictest sense of the word. Rather, it is a journey through the world of the artist Jonas Mekas - one of the exponents of independent U.S. movies; founder and director of the New York Anthology Film Archive.
Jonas in the Desert
1994
Paul Mills is a miserable, lonely man leading a meaningless existence in a nameless city and has visions of the Spirit of Death waiting to collect him while having encounters with various people while seeking solace for his short life knowing it will end soon. Shadows in the City was the last major work of New York’s 1980s No Wave film scene. Shot over seven years in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, painter-performer Ari Roussimoff’s only fiction feature captures the urban desolation of the city in the decade before gentrification.
Shadows in the City
1991
A scattershot documentary about punk rock film makers in New York, with contributions from Lydia Lunch, Henry Rollins, Richard Kern, Beth B, Nick Zedd and many others. A love letter to the New York Underground.
No Age New York
1993
3.9Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the story finds a handful of ragged survivors attempting to communicate with aquatic life, while another cadre of survivors have made it their crusade to destroy all the world's religions.
War Is Menstrual Envy
1992
4.7A bizarre adventure in which a young boy is chased by a masked phantom holding a severed arm in a graveyard. A man with one arm appears and is handed the severed arm by the phantom. Then a giant woman appears enveloping the boy. An unsettling and delirious apocalyptic atmosphere pervades the movie, designed as a trailer for a "film of the future."
Tom Thumb in the Land of the Giants
1999
4.7After a family tragedy, a young woman finds herself homeless and living on the streets of New York.
What About Me
1993
NRA 16mm narrative short shot in New York with Nick Zedd and Warhol superstar Holly Woodlawn.
Bubblegum
1996
A jaded Lower East Side couple have become bored of straight sex, in a bid to spice things up, they decide to imitate some rough sex scenes as seen on TV.
Strange Love
1996
1980s · 17 titles
5.2Cinema 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
6.7A woman takes each of her boyfriends - one poor and one rich- for a drive in her new car. Each argues with her and insists on taking the wheel. She beats one of them up, before crashing into a group of youths and, finally, a wall.
Woman at the Wheel
1985
5.0Oddballs dancing, leering at camera, guy shaving a nontraditional part of his body and man ripping his own throat out, woman stabbing herself to death.
Submit to Me Now
1987
4.2Set in the future, this tells of an Earth run by a conglomerate called the LaFont Corporation, which uses machines to rule its subjects. "Troublemakers" and malcontents are exiled to an artificial planet called Terra Nova. Problems arise when Terra Nova suddenly shifts its orbit and threatens to crash into Earth.
No Such Thing as Gravity
1989
8.0Video 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.
Sublapse Video Mag 1
1986
5.0Shot entirely in Ireland and England on film stolen by Nick Zedd, the movie offers a rare glimpse into the unique private world of Lydia Lunch; The footage "narrated" by a break-up cassette sent from Lunch to Zedd.
The Wild World of Lydia Lunch
1983
5.7A series of short films by Richard Kern: Stray Dogs, Woman At The Wheel, Thrust In Me, & I Hate You Now.
Manhattan Love Suicides
1985
The apparent strangeness of two sisters becomes easily understood as they wreak appropriate revenge on one of their abusive husbands, by tying him up and imprisoning him on their rooftop. They slowly descend into madness as Stark wraps her head in bandages and paints her face white while clutching a baby doll.
We Are Not To Blame
1989
A parody of, and tribute to, Andy Warhol's MY HUSTLER. The film follows Nick Zedd as he illustrates his method of street survival; hustling people for a roof over his head.
Totem of the Depraved
1983
5.0A junkie wakes up on the streets and walks around, seeing a woman dressed in all white and a heroin addict shooting up.
Go to Hell
1986
5.4In Nick Zedd's mock docu-drama Police State, he puts his own body on the line to illustrate his belief that “freedom is an illusion.” A black comedy-satire / protest film featuring Rockets Redglare.
Police State
1987
4.3In the first half of the movie Nick Zedd has a rough sexual playtime with two young women. In the second half, whilst dressed in drag, he attempts to fellate a too-drunk Rick Strange. All the while, Killdozer's 'King Of Sex' grinds away on the soundtrack.
King of Sex
1986
6.2Zedd plays dual roles in this short-film as a street-wandering guy and a suicidal female.
Thrust in Me
1985
NRIn the unsettling, absurdist SIMONLAND, a grotesque, televangelist-style demagogue leads his studio audience and isolated viewers through a psychotic game of Simon Says with twisted results.
Simonland
1984
5.2Zedd plays D.B. Shane, a dead star who visits a fan in her dreams, kisses her then kills her.
Kiss Me Goodbye
1986
NRA non-linear narrative starring Nick Zedd as a neo-nazi.
The Promised Land
1986
4.2Nick Zedd's controversial and disturbing WHOREGASM is a twelve-minute barrage of sexual loops interspersed with bits of found footage, dizzying opticals, and outtakes of Zedd's own POLICE STATE. The sex scenes, most which appear to be taken from old 8mm stag reels, are edited in such a way that makes the act of sex seem impersonal, mechanical, and altogether vile.
Whoregasm
1988
Behind the camera
1.0No synopsis available yet.
Impression X
2023
4.2From the warped mind of underground auteur Nick Zedd comes this campy horrorfest that follows screwy scientist Dr. Frankenberry as he attempts to resurrect the dead, aided by his hunchbacked minion. Adding to the twisted fun are Donna Death as bloodsucking temptress Scumbalina, Richard Hell as punk-rock cowboy crooner the Rawhide Kid and Tyler Smith as Frankenberry’s monstrous two-headed creation, Formaldehyde Man.
Geek Maggot Bingo or The Freak from Suckweasel Mountain
1983
4.2From the warped mind of underground auteur Nick Zedd comes this campy horrorfest that follows screwy scientist Dr. Frankenberry as he attempts to resurrect the dead, aided by his hunchbacked minion. Adding to the twisted fun are Donna Death as bloodsucking temptress Scumbalina, Richard Hell as punk-rock cowboy crooner the Rawhide Kid and Tyler Smith as Frankenberry’s monstrous two-headed creation, Formaldehyde Man.
Geek Maggot Bingo or The Freak from Suckweasel Mountain
1983
3.5Three werewolf women from Uranus are sent to Earth to exterminate all bullies, stooges, and sexists in New York City.
Werewolf Bitches from Outer Space
2017
3.8Reverend Jen tries on different pairs of panties.
Elf Panties: The Movie
2001
3.9Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the story finds a handful of ragged survivors attempting to communicate with aquatic life, while another cadre of survivors have made it their crusade to destroy all the world's religions.
War Is Menstrual Envy
1992
3.9Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the story finds a handful of ragged survivors attempting to communicate with aquatic life, while another cadre of survivors have made it their crusade to destroy all the world's religions.
War Is Menstrual Envy
1992
3.9Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the story finds a handful of ragged survivors attempting to communicate with aquatic life, while another cadre of survivors have made it their crusade to destroy all the world's religions.
War Is Menstrual Envy
1992
5.7The rise, fall and rise of a teen death-rock idol.
They Eat Scum
1979
5.7The rise, fall and rise of a teen death-rock idol.
They Eat Scum
1979
4.7A bizarre adventure in which a young boy is chased by a masked phantom holding a severed arm in a graveyard. A man with one arm appears and is handed the severed arm by the phantom. Then a giant woman appears enveloping the boy. An unsettling and delirious apocalyptic atmosphere pervades the movie, designed as a trailer for a "film of the future."
Tom Thumb in the Land of the Giants
1999
4.7A bizarre adventure in which a young boy is chased by a masked phantom holding a severed arm in a graveyard. A man with one arm appears and is handed the severed arm by the phantom. Then a giant woman appears enveloping the boy. An unsettling and delirious apocalyptic atmosphere pervades the movie, designed as a trailer for a "film of the future."
Tom Thumb in the Land of the Giants
1999
5.0Shot entirely in Ireland and England on film stolen by Nick Zedd, the movie offers a rare glimpse into the unique private world of Lydia Lunch; The footage "narrated" by a break-up cassette sent from Lunch to Zedd.
The Wild World of Lydia Lunch
1983
5.0Shot entirely in Ireland and England on film stolen by Nick Zedd, the movie offers a rare glimpse into the unique private world of Lydia Lunch; The footage "narrated" by a break-up cassette sent from Lunch to Zedd.
The Wild World of Lydia Lunch
1983
NRThe birth of Electra Elf & Fluffer!
Electra Elf: The Beginning
2005
5.7A series of short films by Richard Kern: Stray Dogs, Woman At The Wheel, Thrust In Me, & I Hate You Now.
Manhattan Love Suicides
1985
5.7A series of short films by Richard Kern: Stray Dogs, Woman At The Wheel, Thrust In Me, & I Hate You Now.
Manhattan Love Suicides
1985
5.2An agit-prop edutainment ho down featuring a bevy of warrior lapdancers struggling to overthrow corporate state capitalism and rancid criminal globalisation through amateur wrestling, gun juggling and anarchist debate.
Ecstasy in Entropy
1999
5.2An agit-prop edutainment ho down featuring a bevy of warrior lapdancers struggling to overthrow corporate state capitalism and rancid criminal globalisation through amateur wrestling, gun juggling and anarchist debate.
Ecstasy in Entropy
1999
3.6A series of close-ups of real urban 'types' in which the camera is returned to its Edison-era status as a simple recording device.
Why Do You Exist?
1998
A parody of, and tribute to, Andy Warhol's MY HUSTLER. The film follows Nick Zedd as he illustrates his method of street survival; hustling people for a roof over his head.
Totem of the Depraved
1983
5.0A junkie wakes up on the streets and walks around, seeing a woman dressed in all white and a heroin addict shooting up.
Go to Hell
1986
5.0Zarathustra spends his days in his NY apartment, talking to and confiding in a pin-up on his wall, and on this occasion his delusional dialog with the porn idol results in his declaration that he must ‘descend’, as if being reluctantly chosen for some important or divine mission.
Thus Spake Zarathustra
2001
5.0Zarathustra spends his days in his NY apartment, talking to and confiding in a pin-up on his wall, and on this occasion his delusional dialog with the porn idol results in his declaration that he must ‘descend’, as if being reluctantly chosen for some important or divine mission.
Thus Spake Zarathustra
2001
5.4In Nick Zedd's mock docu-drama Police State, he puts his own body on the line to illustrate his belief that “freedom is an illusion.” A black comedy-satire / protest film featuring Rockets Redglare.
Police State
1987
5.4In Nick Zedd's mock docu-drama Police State, he puts his own body on the line to illustrate his belief that “freedom is an illusion.” A black comedy-satire / protest film featuring Rockets Redglare.
Police State
1987
5.4In Nick Zedd's mock docu-drama Police State, he puts his own body on the line to illustrate his belief that “freedom is an illusion.” A black comedy-satire / protest film featuring Rockets Redglare.
Police State
1987
An old lady looks for her missing dog and is arrested for putting up posters.
I Was a Quality of Life Violation
2004
An old lady looks for her missing dog and is arrested for putting up posters.
I Was a Quality of Life Violation
2004
An old lady looks for her missing dog and is arrested for putting up posters.
I Was a Quality of Life Violation
2004
NRThrowing pearls before swine, Nick Zedd and MVD unleash ten never before seen additions to the groundbreaking filmmaker's legacy of celluloid subversion
Nick Zedd - Beyond Transgression: New Short Movies!
2018
6.2Zedd plays dual roles in this short-film as a street-wandering guy and a suicidal female.
Thrust in Me
1985
6.2Zedd plays dual roles in this short-film as a street-wandering guy and a suicidal female.
Thrust in Me
1985
NRThe legendary underground filmmaker Nick Zedd returns with this fantastic account of the titular death of performance artist and costume designer Muffinhead.
The Death of Muffinhead
2017
NRThe legendary underground filmmaker Nick Zedd returns with this fantastic account of the titular death of performance artist and costume designer Muffinhead.
The Death of Muffinhead
2017
NRA collection of the weird and wonderful works of indie film maker Nick Zedd.
Abnormal: The Sinema of Nick Zedd
2001
NRA collection of the weird and wonderful works of indie film maker Nick Zedd.
Abnormal: The Sinema of Nick Zedd
2001
NRThe paintings of Nick Zedd come to life, and they have some disturbing things to say in this animated short.
Attack of the Particle Disruptors
2017
Dual-projection formatted film by Nick Zedd.
Smiling Faces Tell Lies
1995
Dual-projection formatted film by Nick Zedd.
Smiling Faces Tell Lies
1995

