NO WAVE UNDERGROUND

Bankruptcy as a catalyst for artistic potential: New York and the Western part of Berlin were economically run-down in the early Eighties. Against this backdrop, in both cities emerges an underground culture that radically breaks with the pop-cultural tedium which the early 70s had left behind.

A wild and uncompromising scene of young artists working in film, music, painting and theatre trigger off a unique exchange between the subcultures in New York and Berlin and create one of the most inspired and exciting artistic movements of the late 20th century.

As a member of the band DIE HAUT, filmmaker Christoph Dreher was at the centre of the No Wave scene. With the help of old friends and fellow artists like Jim Jarmusch, Blixa Bargeld, Alex Hacke, Lydia Lunch or Nick Cave he tells us the story of the motives, ideas and attitudes that shaped the scene from an insider’s point of view.

Christoph Dreher, born 1953, studied at dffb Berlin and has made various audiovisual productions. Since 2001 he has been teaching film and video at the Merz Akademie in Stuttgart.

Director
Christoph Dreher

Cinematography
Horst Markgraf
Chris Turner

Editor
Ellen El Malki

Sound
Zora Butzke
Haresh Patel

Producer
Stefan Kloos

Assistant Director
Kerstin Brandes

Production Manager
Caroline Kirberg

Production Assistants
Max Armansperg
Philip Widmann

Production
Kloos & Co. Medien

Co-Production
ZDF in collaboration with ARTE

Commissioning Editor ZDF/ARTE
Kathrin Brinkmann