Mike Watt

Acting

Mike Watt

Born 1957-12-20 · Portsmouth, Virginia, USA

Michael David "Mike" Watt is an American bassist, singer and songwriter. He is best known for co-founding the rock bands Minutemen, Dos, and Firehose; as of 2003, he is also the bassist for the reunited Stooges and a member of the art rock/jazz/punk/improv group Banyan as well as many other post-Minutemen projects.

Acting credits

Gimme Danger poster
6.9

No other band in rock'n'roll history has rivaled The Stooges' combination of heavy primal throb, spiked psychedelia, blues-a-billy grind, complete with succinct angst-ridden lyrics, and a snarling, preening leopard of a frontman who somehow embodies Nijinsky, Bruce Lee, Harpo Marx, and Arthur Rimbaud all rolled into one. There is no precedent for The Stooges, while those inspired by them are now legion. The film will present the context of their emergence musically, culturally, politically, historically, and relate their adventures and misadventures while charting their inspirations and the reasons behind their initial commercial challenges, as well as their long-lasting legacy.

Gimme Danger

2016

Hollywood Rex poster
NR

Rex is the bassist of Moxie Pad, a band on the brink of success. Entangled in a toxic "situationship" with manager Cal, Rex embarks on a transformative walk from Hollywood to Los Feliz after the band accidentally leaves her behind.

Hollywood Rex

2024

Coachella poster
6.5

Filmmaker Drew Thomas brings California's popular Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival to the screen with a different kind of musical documentary that not only showcases performances by some of the hottest acts to take the stage, but offers interviews with such musical icons as Beck, Joshua Homme, Mos Def, and Perry Farrell as well. From English icon Morrissey's performance at the inaugural Coachella Festival back in 1999 to Canadian indie rockers the Arcade Fire's electric 2005 set, the musical acts featured here run the gamut from hip-hop to alternative and virtually everything in between. Other artists featured include the Pixies, the Flaming Lips, Kool Keith, Radiohead, Saul Williams, and Squarepusher.

Coachella

2006

Concrete Law poster
NR

Channel Street Skatepark successfully existed for over a decade under the Interstate 110, despite its illegal creation, until overpass construction led to an ongoing shutdown. Channel Street founders and advocates continue to push for a reopening but the legal matter proves to be a much more complex task than anyone ever imagined. Concrete Law explores the battle between Channel Street Skatepark and bureaucratic control. This film uncovers the history of the park, from creation to current status, through interviews with park founders, local and pro skaters, business owners, and city officials.

Concrete Law

2024

You Can Color Outside the Lines... The Big Boys poster
NR

YOU CAN COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES, THE BIG BOYS tells the true story of the beloved funk/punk band from Austin, Texas. Go beyond Austin's city limits and hear from some of music & skateboarding's greats about how the original "skate punk" band's message of DIY positivity still resonates today. Hear from such legends as Tim Kerr (Big Boys), Fred Armisen (SNL), Tony Alva (Dogtown & Z-Boys), Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam), Exene Cervenka (X) & many more as this VHS-inspired trip takes you back to those hot summers of Texas in the 80s. And then go make your own art!

You Can Color Outside the Lines... The Big Boys

2018

40 Watts from Nowhere poster
NR

Frustrated by commercial radio in the ’90s, a music-loving legal secretary builds one from scratch and runs it out of her LA apartment.

40 Watts from Nowhere

2025

Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All poster
8.0

Long before Green Day and Blink 182 inflicted punk-rock's puncture wound on the map of mainstream music, the Descendents were at home concocting the perfect mix of pop, angst, love, and coffee. FILMAGE: The Story of DESCENDENTS/ALL follows drummer/square-peg Bill Stevenson and his 'caffeinated retardedness' as he pushes his rotating door of bandmates to 'achieve ALL,' his philosophy of going for greatness at all costs. Stevenson is a force to be reckoned with--not even grapefruit-sized brain tumors can keep him down.

Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All

2013

Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind poster
NR

Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind visually documents the explosion of Grunge, the Seattle Sound, within the context of the underground punk subculture that was developing throughout the U.S. in the late 1970s and 1980s. This decade-and-a-half musical journey will be represented entirely through the lens of EMP’s oral history and permanent object collection, an invaluable and rich cultural archive of over 800 interviews and 140,000 objects - instruments, costumes, posters, records and other ephemera dedicated to the pursuit of rock n roll.

Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind

2011

No artwork available
3.6

Four awkward 17-year-olds struggle through their senior year. Like most high school students, they ride a continual wave of embarrassment: crappy after-school jobs, attempted sex in the science room, tinfoil shorts, guitar-strumming hippie teachers and brushes with the law. The only difference is that their moments of humiliation are caught on tape--our gang of four are the subjects of a documentary shot by fellow classmates.

High School Record

2005

Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape poster
6.4

Cassette inventor Lou Ottens digs through his past to figure out why the audiotape won't die. Rock veterans join a legion of young bands releasing music on tape to push Lou along on his journey to remember.

Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape

2016

Search and Destroy: Iggy & The Stooges' Raw Power poster
NR

A documentary focused on Iggy Pop & The Stooges and their album "Raw Power".

Search and Destroy: Iggy & The Stooges' Raw Power

2010

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

Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone poster
7.3

From the shifting fault lines of Hollywood fantasies and the economic and racial tensions of Reagan's America, Fishbone rose and became one of the most original bands of the last 25 years. With a blistering combination of punk and funk they demolished the walls of genre and challenged the racial stereotypes and the political order of the music industry and of the nation.

Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone

2011

What Drives Us poster
6.8

The stories of some of the biggest artists in music, recalling the romance and adventure, as well as the idiocy and chaos, of their time on the road. While the world has changed, the custom has not changed. There is no other way to know whether you can make it in this business. You have to get in the van.

What Drives Us

2021

I Need That Record! poster
6.5

A documentary feature examining why over 3000 independent record stores have closed across the U.S. in the past decade. Many sources all pose threats on the very well being of our favorite record stores. Will these stores die or will they survive?

I Need That Record!

2008

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

Iggy and the Stooges: Raw Power Live (In the Hands of the Fans) poster
7.5

Through an online contest, six fans were selected to film Iggy & the Stooges' legendary September 3, 2010 reunion as the band performed "Raw Power" to a stunned crowd at the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival. Following the performance, the fans met and interviewed the band. Experience the fans' and joy as they witness a classic performance and meet their heroes face to face."In the Hands of the Fans" brings the fans closer to the band and the music closer to you.

Iggy and the Stooges: Raw Power Live (In the Hands of the Fans)

2011

The Life of Sean DeLear poster
NR

The Life of Sean DeLear is a vibrantly multi-faceted, buoyantly propulsive documentary portrait of this irresistibly charismatic one-off — sketched in celebratory but commendably clear-eyed style by writer-director Markus Zizenbacher. There can be very few people better qualified to do justice to this particular tale. Zizenbacher befriended DeLear — born Anthony Robertson in Simi Valley, an obscure California backwater — after the latter relocated to Vienna in the early 2010s.

The Life of Sean DeLear

2024

Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story poster
6.8

Gatling Pictures' "Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story" examines the life and work of Mark Sandman, deceased frontman of Boston "low rock" band Morphine. From his Newton, Mass., roots to his travels across America and around the globe, Sandman left an indelible imprint as one of the most distinctive musicians of his generation. Along with revisiting the "unique and sultry sound" of his music, the film explores the meaning of family through this critically praised and personally conflicted singer, songwriter and innovative instrumentalist.

Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story

2011

No artwork available
NR

This performance, shot live at the Lokerse Festival in August 2005 shows exactly why the Stooges were so influential in their heyday and why to this day they have no peer. Featuring the greatest songs from the seminal albums, The Stooges (1969) and Funhouse (1970) as well as two new songs the band first recorded for Iggy’s last solo album, Live at Lokerse Festival is the definitive record of the Stooges’ long awaited return to glory.

Iggy & the Stooges: Live at the Lokerse Festival

2005

Weatherman '69 poster
10.0

Featuring a cast that includes Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore, Mike Watt of the legendary hardcore band Minutemen, and Pettibon himself, this deadpan narrative pays dubious homage to the 1960's radical underground. In this crudely rendered home video of a commune of stoned revolutionaries, the cameras are hand-held, the edits in-camera, and the dialogue is wryly on-target. Pettibon's band of outsiders reenacts a countercultural moment defined by rock music, drugs, and ideological paradox — and in so doing, captures their own late-80's West Coast grunge milieu as well.

Weatherman '69

1989

No artwork available
NR

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.

Sonic Youth: NYC and Beyond

2019

Flipside Video Fanzine Number Two poster
8.0

White Flag : Flipside, Not Alright, Communication Breakdown G.B.H. : Gimme Fire, Wild Thing, I Am The Hunted 7 Seconds : This Is My Life, out of Touch, Skins brains guts Tesco Vee : worshiping /s - 7 seconds with a cat and a guessing game with: SSD doing Shangri-las, White Flag doing Pink Floyd & GBH doing the Buzzcocks. Battalion of Saints : I Wanna Make You Scream Minor Threat : Stand Up And Be Counted, Stepping Stone Rodney Mullen skating Minor Threat: betray & Jeff Nelson Brian baker (skating) it Follows Big Boys : Brickwall Stretch Marks : Professional Punks Urinals/100 Flowers : California Falling, Surfing With The Shaw, With: Keith Morris and D Boon Black Flag : Scream in Mike Muir's garage Kraut : Kill For Cash Minutemen : Split Red, Life As A Rehearsal, Ack Ack Ack Ack Angst : This Guns For You, Neil Armstrong Dickies : If Stuart Could Talk, Manny, Moe, and Jack, You Drive Me Ape, Gigantor ENDCLIPS: The Avengers, The Eyes, 45 Grave, SIN 34

Flipside Video Fanzine Number Two

1983

Records Collecting Dust poster
5.3

Written and directed by San Diego based musician and filmmaker Jason Blackmore, Records Collecting Dust documents the vinyl record collections, origins, and holy grails of alternative music icons Jello Biafra, Chuck Dukowski, Keith Morris, John Reis, and over thirty other underground music comrades.

Records Collecting Dust

2015