Coming to NYC’s Film Forum today, Wednesday, October 29: REVENGE OF THE MEKONS
Joe Angio’s look at the surprisingly long-lived band debuted at DOC NYC last year. It’s gone on to screen at Cucalorus, Leeds, Milwaukee, DOXA, Sarasota, and In-Edit Barcelona, among others.
Angio’s entertaining film is a love-letter to the self-effacing UK band which started as something of an art school project at the University of Leeds but has somehow managed to continue for over three decades. Despite critical acclaim and an enthusiastic fanbase, they’ve never quite broken into mainstream success, with bandmates still having to hold day jobs. Angio charts their development from 1976 university students who didn’t quite know what punk was – or how to play the instruments they “borrowed” from the real punk band, The Gang of Four – through multiple reinventions – Thatcher-era folk, American honkeytonk, anti-grunge rock, and most recently art world darlings – alienating record companies along the way, but always remaining quintessentially punk.
what (not) to doc 