Nick Zedd

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

Joe's Apartment poster
5.9

A 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

In Bad Taste poster
8.0

A 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

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

Impression X poster
1.0

No synopsis available yet.

Impression X

2023

Terror Firmer poster
6.0

A low-budget film crew working in New York City find themselves being preyed upon by a sexually conflicted serial killer.

Terror Firmer

1999

Blank City poster
6.9

In 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

2010s · 7 titles

Blank City poster
6.9

In 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

Scumbag poster
2.8

A 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

Con Artist poster
6.7

A 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

Halloween 1990 poster
NR

Jonas Mekas films the Halloween festivities at Anthology Film Archives in 1990.

Halloween 1990

2014

Attack of the Particle Disruptors poster
NR

The 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

Paradise Lost poster
NR

Super 8 home-movie by legendary underground filmmaker Nick Zedd. Features his paintings, apartment, wife and son. Shot in Mexico, 2015.

Paradise Lost

2015

The Hardcore Collection poster
7.7

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.

The Hardcore Collection

2012

2000s · 9 titles

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

Other People's Mirrors poster
4.5

In 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

Rockets Redglare! poster
7.7

A 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

Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis poster
6.7

In 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

The Hardcore Collection poster
NR

A 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

Kill the Artist poster
2.0

Reveals 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

Thus Spake Zarathustra poster
5.0

Zarathustra 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

Llik Your Idols poster
4.6

Discover 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

The Sex Files: A Dark XXX Parody poster
7.2

Federal 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

Joe's Apartment poster
5.9

A 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

In Bad Taste poster
8.0

A 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

Terror Firmer poster
6.0

A low-budget film crew working in New York City find themselves being preyed upon by a sexually conflicted serial killer.

Terror Firmer

1999

Jonas in the Desert poster
6.4

Not 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

No artwork available
10.0

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

No artwork available
8.0

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

War Is Menstrual Envy poster
3.9

Set 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

Tom Thumb in the Land of the Giants poster
4.7

A 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

What About Me poster
4.7

After a family tragedy, a young woman finds herself homeless and living on the streets of New York.

What About Me

1993

Bubblegum poster
NR

A 16mm narrative short shot in New York with Nick Zedd and Warhol superstar Holly Woodlawn.

Bubblegum

1996

No artwork available
NR

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

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

Woman at the Wheel poster
6.7

A 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

Submit to Me Now poster
5.0

Oddballs 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

No Such Thing as Gravity poster
4.2

Set 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

Sublapse Video Mag 1 poster
8.0

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.

Sublapse Video Mag 1

1986

The Wild World of Lydia Lunch poster
5.0

Shot 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

Manhattan Love Suicides poster
5.7

A series of short films by Richard Kern: Stray Dogs, Woman At The Wheel, Thrust In Me, & I Hate You Now.

Manhattan Love Suicides

1985

No artwork available
9.0

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

No artwork available
NR

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

Go to Hell poster
5.0

A 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

Police State poster
5.4

In 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

King of Sex poster
4.3

In 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

Thrust in Me poster
6.2

Zedd plays dual roles in this short-film as a street-wandering guy and a suicidal female.

Thrust in Me

1985

Simonland poster
NR

In 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

Kiss Me Goodbye poster
5.2

Zedd plays D.B. Shane, a dead star who visits a fan in her dreams, kisses her then kills her.

Kiss Me Goodbye

1986

The Promised Land poster
NR

A non-linear narrative starring Nick Zedd as a neo-nazi.

The Promised Land

1986

Whoregasm poster
4.2

Nick 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

Impression X poster
1.0

No synopsis available yet.

Impression X

2023

Geek Maggot Bingo or The Freak from Suckweasel Mountain poster
4.2

From 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

Geek Maggot Bingo or The Freak from Suckweasel Mountain poster
4.2

From 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

Werewolf Bitches from Outer Space poster
3.5

Three 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

Elf Panties: The Movie poster
3.8

Reverend Jen tries on different pairs of panties.

Elf Panties: The Movie

2001

War Is Menstrual Envy poster
3.9

Set 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

War Is Menstrual Envy poster
3.9

Set 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

War Is Menstrual Envy poster
3.9

Set 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

They Eat Scum poster
5.7

The rise, fall and rise of a teen death-rock idol.

They Eat Scum

1979

They Eat Scum poster
5.7

The rise, fall and rise of a teen death-rock idol.

They Eat Scum

1979

Tom Thumb in the Land of the Giants poster
4.7

A 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

Tom Thumb in the Land of the Giants poster
4.7

A 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

The Wild World of Lydia Lunch poster
5.0

Shot 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

The Wild World of Lydia Lunch poster
5.0

Shot 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

Electra Elf: The Beginning poster
NR

The birth of Electra Elf & Fluffer!

Electra Elf: The Beginning

2005

Manhattan Love Suicides poster
5.7

A series of short films by Richard Kern: Stray Dogs, Woman At The Wheel, Thrust In Me, & I Hate You Now.

Manhattan Love Suicides

1985

Manhattan Love Suicides poster
5.7

A series of short films by Richard Kern: Stray Dogs, Woman At The Wheel, Thrust In Me, & I Hate You Now.

Manhattan Love Suicides

1985

Ecstasy in Entropy poster
5.2

An 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

Ecstasy in Entropy poster
5.2

An 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

Why Do You Exist? poster
3.6

A 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

No artwork available
NR

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

Go to Hell poster
5.0

A 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

Thus Spake Zarathustra poster
5.0

Zarathustra 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

Thus Spake Zarathustra poster
5.0

Zarathustra 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

Police State poster
5.4

In 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

Police State poster
5.4

In 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

Police State poster
5.4

In 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

No artwork available
NR

An old lady looks for her missing dog and is arrested for putting up posters.

I Was a Quality of Life Violation

2004

No artwork available
NR

An old lady looks for her missing dog and is arrested for putting up posters.

I Was a Quality of Life Violation

2004

No artwork available
NR

An old lady looks for her missing dog and is arrested for putting up posters.

I Was a Quality of Life Violation

2004

Nick Zedd - Beyond Transgression: New Short Movies! poster
NR

Throwing 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

Thrust in Me poster
6.2

Zedd plays dual roles in this short-film as a street-wandering guy and a suicidal female.

Thrust in Me

1985

Thrust in Me poster
6.2

Zedd plays dual roles in this short-film as a street-wandering guy and a suicidal female.

Thrust in Me

1985

The Death of Muffinhead poster
NR

The 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

The Death of Muffinhead poster
NR

The 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

Abnormal: The Sinema of Nick Zedd poster
NR

A collection of the weird and wonderful works of indie film maker Nick Zedd.

Abnormal: The Sinema of Nick Zedd

2001

Abnormal: The Sinema of Nick Zedd poster
NR

A collection of the weird and wonderful works of indie film maker Nick Zedd.

Abnormal: The Sinema of Nick Zedd

2001

Attack of the Particle Disruptors poster
NR

The 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

No artwork available
10.0

Dual-projection formatted film by Nick Zedd.

Smiling Faces Tell Lies

1995

No artwork available
10.0

Dual-projection formatted film by Nick Zedd.

Smiling Faces Tell Lies

1995