Between Resistance & Community: The Long Island Do-it-yourself Punk Scene
by Ben Holtzman Author
This original documentary focuses on a group of kids who have built a community around a love of music and a passion for creating an alternative to dominant consumerist society. By putting on shows in basements, booking and traveling on national tours, and releasing their own records, these kids attempt to distance themselves from the corporate influence that they consider not only unnecessary, but unwelcome. This fascinating look into the workings of a DIY punk community also examines the scene's shortcomings, such as undercurrents of sexism as well as the problem of self sufficiency, which pressures some to seek out the same corporate avenues to which the scene strives to be an alternative. Features live footage and interviews with Latterman, On the Might of Princes, The Insurgent, Seven Days of Samsara, plus show-goers, scenesters, zinesters, and activists.
Includes deleted scenes, extra live footage, and follow up segments on Latterman, scene members, and women in punk.
Between Resistance & Community: The Long Island DIY Punk Community by Ben Holtzman, Jimmy Choi, and Joe Carroll on Vimeo.
by Ben Holtzman Author
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Comments & Reviews
These kids are rebelling against social norms through music, community, and kickball. While we may have some disagreements about what exactly the DIY punk scene is all about, they will all agree that it is about friendship, cheap shows, and never giving into consumerism and "the Long Island Mall." I would highly recommend this documentary for anyone curious about the DIY punk scene or for anyone simply desiring an explanation for it.
"Fans of the music will love all of the live performances by a number of
local and touring bands throughout the documentary and in the extras as
well. The extras on this dvd are jam packed with great follow up interviews
since the documentary was originally made in 2001 and one extra in
particular, talks specifically about women in the punk scene who often have
trouble fitting into the male dominated culture and how the girls of the
Long Island scene created their own organizations to express themselves.
This is a great document of an often maligned youth culture (as the constant
run ins with law enforcement shows), which fans of punk music will delight
in."
"This is a thoughtful film and showed a side of punk rock that I am proud to be part of: hard-working, DIY, and willing to wear their hearts on their sleeves."
"At basement shows around the country, the line between band and fan is blurred and a resulting sense of activism resounds. That’s right: step outside of your scene and take a look around… it’s happening everywhere. This is important. These facts are made clear in this documentary. Finding a space where straightforward discussion meets subtle narrative, producer-editor-director Joe Carroll makes this experience seldom less than pleasant. In interviews that could have invited self-consciousness, all of the subjects (including Latterman, On The Might Of Princes, The Insurgent, and Seven Days Of Samsara) provide thoughtful insight, and while Carroll’s camera spends a lot of time roving around shows, he makes it feel intimate rather than exploitative. In doing all of this, he made a great film instead of merely an engaging one. Perhaps the most interesting portions for me were the discussions of contemporary communal and social mores, in which the interviewees add some meat to a topic that I’ve only begun to become familiar with since really delving into life at the D"epartment Of Safety. It’s not hard to share the enthusiasm and frustration contained within… I, too, await the day when all of these ‘micro-scenes’ come together to change things for good."
"Joe Carroll and Ben Holtzman's Between Resistance and Community: The Long Island Do It Yourself Punk Scene proves that punk's not dead—it's just cleaned up its act and moved out past Massapequa. Unlike the glue-sniffing nihilists of Penelope Spheeris's Decline of Western Civilization films, these well-spoken kids with creative haircuts describe their own basement-band scene in terms of "building community-based movements," speaking of "love and compassion" amid alienating landscapes of strip malls and expressways ("Punk is not a drive-thru," reads one of their cut-and-paste flyers). Emo activists in hardcore gear, they collect food for the homeless, analyze their own sexism, and sing without irony about the "smiling faces/smiling back at me" that fill their literally underground gigs. Shot with an appropriately homemade, affectionate style, Betweenprovides a timely snapshot of contemporary punk's new sincerity. Like its subjects, the documentary rebels against cynical consumer capitalism by embracing a warm Fugazite humanism."
listen to seven days of samsara, theyre still around. fucking amazing band.
Do what? Go out, smoke a bowl, drink a 12 pack, mosh, and go back to your parents basement, where you have spent your past 28 years?
This movie is a documentation of my entire childhood. It makes me all nostalgic.
I just bought this video because I live on Long Island and love goin to shows and shit so it sounds cool. The long island punk "scene". It should be cool.
Keep a look out for Latterman. They're back with vengeance, and dirtier than ever. Good kids taking pop punk back from market research teams and corporate music boardrooms. r.i.p. traffic violation records.
Amazing video! Really inspiring, just makes ya wanna go out there and do something!