Press | Punk the Capital

IN THE PRESS

USA

…love letter to the city’s punk scene

...takes viewers through the story of punk’s birth in the District. (Known for short-and-unsweetened paeans to defiance, the punk genre came to flourish in this capital city, becoming one of Washington’s greatest cultural exports.) Dating from the 1970s, the film’s footage captures the raucous spirit of the communion of limbs (and spittle) that once rattled around cramped houses and makeshift stages. That spirit is one of the hallmarks of Washington’s punk landscape that carries through to today: a D.I.Y. spirit of music-making that exists not because it’s fun or easy, but because doing it under anyone else’s rules would betray your principles- Hau Chu - Whole Article

FRANCE

"The best feature film on the subject..."

Une histoire que la plupart des amateurs de musique alternative pensent sans doute connaître sur le bout des doigts et que les réalisateurs James June Schneider, natif de Washington DC déjà auteur d’un documentaire sur Jean Epstein, et Paul Bishow, qui filme les soubresauts de la scène à la caméra Super-8 depuis les premiers jours, se font un malin plaisir de consteller de faits méconnus, d’anecdotes rares et de documents jamais vus. Punk the Capital est ainsi à voir absolument parce qu’il ne débute pas son histoire en 1979, date officielle de la fondation du punk made in DC par les incroyables Bad Brains, mais trois ans plus tôt…- Olivier Lamm - Whole article

SPAIN

Con amplias dosis de sentido del humor y una factura notable, el filme captura la energía y las contradicciones de aquella escena surgida sin el apoyo de la industria o los medios generalistas. Por no haber, casi no había ni salas para tocar en una ciudad por entonces muy conservadora, definida en el documental como "un agujero vacío de miseria". Los conciertos en casas, centros sociales y antros de mala muerte sirvieron de plataforma para que el sonido despegara. "Washington era un lugar totalmente improbable para que surgiese una escena punk, pero una vez arraigó adoptó caminos que nadie podía imaginar", dice MacKaye en el documental - Ricardo Mir de Francia- Whole Article

...a moving and affectionate corrective to punk’s traditionally bleak self-accounting.

Punk the Capital – Building a Sound Movement, a terrific new documentary which receives its UK premiere at Leeds International Film Festival next week. Charting the emergence between 1976 and 1983 of what became known as D.C. Hardcore, the film is augmented by some incredible Super-8 footage, shot first-hand by local scenester Paul Bishow, and hilariously candid interviews from the key protagonists. […] It is deeply intelligent and satisfying, a moving and affectionate corrective to punk’s traditionally bleak self-accounting. It is rich in cumulative detail… - Neil Mudd -whole article

USA

Besides being a trove of the era’s archival footage from the movement’s peak and retrospective reflections from its major players, “Punk the Capital: Building a Sound Movement in Washington, D.C.,” promises to inspire conversations about D.C. music history, a changing city, but perhaps also about the possibilities that lie ahead - Kangsen Wakai - Whole article

"Punk The Capital offers “a new perspective on DC punk history,” specifically from 1976 to 1983. Coming into last Saturday’s screening at the Middle East Upstairs, I was most excited for the live footage – Punk The Capital features rare, never-before-seen live video of bands including the Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Void, and more on Super-8 [...] The live footage is visceral, fabulously sepia, and a fresh (and mildly grainy) glimpse at live shows from forty years ago [...]. And while that prospect may have gotten me in the door, viewers are gifted so much more. Punk The Capital offers a new and unique chronicling of early DC punk and hardcore, laying the framework for what mid-‘70s Washington DC felt like culturally (notably, “a wasteland”)" BOSTON HASSLE

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USA / 09.2019

This was a very good documentary. The DC scene gave us Bad Brains, Minor Threat and Henry Rollins. At the very beginning though was The Slickee Boys. They gave them their full due which was nice to see. The Slickees came to Boston in those early days too. Like a lot of early Boston punk groups they were more aggressive rock than what would become a punk group after the Ramones. [...] You got to hear interviews with Ian and Alec MacKaye, HR from Bad Brains and Henry Rollins among others. There’s a lot more in the movie than what we are saying here. This is much worth seeing.BGN

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BRITAIN
The BBC on the DC Punk Archive and Punk the Capital
also available here http://vimeo.com/116782978

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KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN PRESS
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"In a nod to DC punk’s history of community activism, they are planning special screenings and DVD tie-ins to benefit local education and social justice nonprofits upon Punk the Capital’s scheduled late-2015 release. The filmmakers have also been working with the DC Public Library to develop a punk archive and share the exhaustive trove of material they’ve amassed, including reams of aging Super-8 footage badly in need of preservation. (Details on both efforts here.) There’s that communitarian thing again. To join it, click on the widget." MUSIC FILM WEB

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USA

"'Punk the Capital' illuminates the early punk scene with a focus on the infamous Madams Organ artists collective. Stepping inside this anarchic row-house transports the viewer to the late 70’s, a time full of discovery and sense of possibility for well known figures such as Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye. It was also where seminal bands such as the Bad Brains, Black Market Baby, and the Teen Idles took off and where the sound and ideas behind “D.C. harDCore” truly began." PUNK ROCK PLANET

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USA

"While this new one features some of the same talking heads – and let’s face it, Ian MacKaye is essential – it looks decidedly more artful with an abundance of stunning archive footage of Bad Brains, Minor Threat and all the greats. So who cares that there’s two new documentaries on the subject? I say the more the merrier". GROLSCH FILM WORKS

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USA

Paul came to Washington in 1978 from Long Island. He didn’t really intend to stay, but he was drawn into the fervent, fertile scene that coalesced at Madam’s Organ — not the Adams Morgan blues bar of today but an artist’s collective on 18th Street NW that hosted music and film. “The Organ itself was a very open-minded place,” Paul said. “That was one of the best things about it. One of the things that really attracted me was the closeness of the audience and the bands. They were often the same people. You’d have people in the audience this week and next week they’d be forming a band, too.” That kind of sums up punk in a nutshell. WASHINGTON POST

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(FRANCE)

Décrite comme “une ville dans laquelle on n’aurait pas imaginé une scène punk exister”, Washington se retrouve ici exposée sous un nouvel angle : celui d’une jeunesse qui, étouffée par l’omniprésence du politique, permet à la mouvance punk de s’exporter sur les terres du Capitole.Comme beaucoup de mouvements, le punk de D.C. avait son lieu emblématique que le documentaire évoque : le Madams Organ, où gens de tout horizon se mêlaient et dans lequel la naissance du hardcore s’est opérée en souterrain, durant les années conservatrices de la présidence Reagan. LES INROCKS

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"For the past ten years, James and co-director Paul Bishow have been painstakingly making a documentary about the early years of DC punk using archive footage, much of which was filmed by Bishow at the time and has never been seen before." Dale Shaw for the QUIETUS

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USA

"Filmmakers and punk scene vets James Schneider and Paul Bishow have spent years working on the penultimate chronicling of the DC punk and harDCore scenes that they’ve long been a part of. The pair have spent countless hours pouring through vintage concert performances and conducting interviews with the likes of Ian Mackaye, Henry Rollins, Jello Biafra, Tesco Vee, Jeff Nelson and a bunch more." DYING SCENE

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(France)

CHRONIC'ART
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Washington D.C.’s underground music scene forever altered the definition of punk, transforming it from nihilist towards something constructive. Within this unlikely town in 1979, generations, musical genres and powerful personalities created a volatile mix that changed music and culture around the world. - See more at: http://louderthanwar.com/punk-the-capital-watch-trailer-for-new-film-spotlighting-early-dc-punk-scene-in/#sthash.Ac2HtKcJ.dpuf

(USA)

“Punk the Capital, Straight from Washington D.C.,” directed and produced by veteran D.C. filmmakers James Schneider and Paul Bishow, captures the essence of D.C. punk from its source and steers shy of nostalgia, making this history relevant 35 years later." LOUDER THAN WAR

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The unfathomable, concentrated eruption that was early 80’s DC punk and hardcore is documented in ‘Punk The Capital’, a film 10 years in the making, and featuring practically every DC music luminary. You can see the amazing trailer and possibly throw the film a few quid to get it finished, right HERE.SABOTAGE TIMES

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USA

"To this day, the underground music scene of the late ’70s and early ’80s remains fairly unexamined (with perhaps the exception of Seattle’s Nirvana) so as much as this documentary might bring some of that music further into the light, it would makes its production a worthwhile cause." THE SNOBETTE

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USA

Punk the Capital! Chronicling the History Of D.C. Punk ! An interview with filmmakers Paul Bishow and James Schneider.

Does this documentary try to flesh out details or elements that books like Dance of Days could not, or did not?

James and Paul: ... "We dive back into what happened before then, in the late 70s, and then after, with harDCore. We get to the heart of why DC Punk has such staying power, why harDCore had to happen, and why DC was such a fertile ground for this new scene. The answer to these questions come straight out of that transitional moment, and specifically the Madams Organ artists co-op. It’s something you can pick up on when all the pieces are assembled and when you see all the interconnections between the generations and how they perceived each other." LEFT OF THE DIAL

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USA

"Schneider, who has been going to local punk shows since a 1986 (One Last Wish) gig, has directed several documentaries and a sci-fi film, The End of the Light Age. Bishow managed the Biograph, a long-gone repertory theater, and shot lots of late '70s footage of bands at the Madam’s Organ artists collective." CITY PAPER (DC)

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FRANCE

"Ce que je peux faire pour vraiment vous convaincre, c'est vous parler brièvement du réalisateur-instigateur du projet qui s'y connait sacrément en fabrication de reportages sur les groupes de wock n' woll qui envoient du bois, et qui aurait bien besoin d'un coup de paluche amical. On cause ici de James Schneider (à gauche sur la photo), réalisateur de Blue is Beautiful, indispensable documentaire sur The Make Up (dont on avait utilisé des extraits dans notre propre interview vidéo de Ian Svenonius), et de The Band That Met The Sound Beneath, documentaire sur Panico (qu'on a aussi interviewés) à la recherche "des sons de l'or". Il s'est associé pour l'occasion avec Paul Bishow, maitre es Super-8 et boss d'I Am Eye, amoureux devant l'éternel du punk (à droite avec la caméra), tellement qu'il a même choisi de déménager à Washington pour être plus prêt de l'épicentre historique du mouvement." THE DRONE

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USA

"The filmmakers are intimately familiar with the scene they chronicle. Schneider is a D.C. native who grew up in the punk and skate scenes of the ’80s and has gone on to direct and produce films and music videos such as Blue is Beautiful (1997), featuring Dischord band The Make-Up. Bishow moved to D.C. in the late 1970s and filmed the punk scene via Super-8, making dozens of short films with punk bands."AMOEBLOG

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USA

One of the things that has always struck me as a bit odd is that when people talk about the “core” breeding grounds for the punk rock movement, Washington, DC is almost always left out of the discussion completely. Now, thanks to filmmakers James Schneider Paul Bishow, that wrong is being righted, with their documentary “Punk The Capital” entering the final stages of production. DEATH AND TAXES

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(USA, WASHINGTON DC)

"That Bishow was living in D.C. during this time and already documenting the scene adds to the documentary's credibility. He and Schneider are editing "Punk the Capital" in the same Adams Morgan apartment Bishow and other artists used as their home base off and on for 30 years" WTOP

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USA

"Punk the Capital" is an exploration/ road map of how the 1970s music scene begat what became harDCore in the 1980s. Way before cell phones captured every other minute, this movie looks to preserve raw and rare footage combined with primary source interviews and memories straight from the horse's mouth. We are lucky to have so many voices still alive to tell the tale - among them Alec and Ian MacKaye, Cynthia Connolly, Xyra Harper and Henry Rollins. DC ROCKS

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USA

"Old school punk rock doesn’t get much more iconic than Washington DC’s vibrant scene during the ’70s and ’80s, and DC locals James Schneider and Paul Bishow are trying to bring that rock epoch to a wider audience. Punk The Capital, Straight From Washington DC is an upcoming documentary — featuring legends such as Henry Rollins, Ian MacKaye, and H.R. of Bad Brains — that explores the power and fury of some of punk’s earliest roots." ZUMIC

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(USA)

' “There was a whole music scene, pre-1979, that had an identity and it had pioneers in their own right,” Schneider says. He’s referring to bands like Urban Verbs, White Boy, The Razz, and The Slickee Boys, which came along before D.C.’s underground rock scene began to give way to a faster, brasher hardcore sound. It’s a transition that some would call a split, Schneider says, but it also sprung from intentional cooperation between generations, in which those older, established bands extended a hand to the younger kids who would become D.C.’s hardcore pioneers. “Basically, we’re tracing that whole generation shift,” Schneider says.' NPR

A DOCUMENTARY ON THE RISE OF WASHINGTON D.C.'s PUNK UNDERGROUND (circa 1976-1983)

A DOCUMENTARY ON THE RISE OF WASHINGTON D.C.'s PUNK / HARDCORE UNDERGROUND (circa 1976-1983)