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{{short description|American film producer}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2013}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2013}}

[[File:Scott_B_and_Beth_B,_Black_Box_and_G-Man_Flyer_(1978).jpg|thumb|260px|Beth and Scott B's ''Black Box'' and ''G-Man'' flyer for 1978 screenings at [[MoMA PS1|P.S. 1]] featuring [[Jamie Nares (artist)|Jamie Nares]]]]

{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person
| name = Scott B
| name = Scott B
| image =File:Scott_B_and_Beth_B_poster_for_THE_OFFENDERS.jpg
| image =
| image_size =
| image_size =
| caption =
| caption =
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| death_place =
| death_place =
| other_names = Scott Billingsley
| other_names = Scott Billingsley
| known_for = [[No Wave]] [[Colab]]
| known_for = [[No Wave]], [[Colab]]
| occupation = Film director, producer, screenwriter
| occupation = Film director, producer, screenwriter
}}
}}
{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person
| name = Beth B
| name = Beth B
| image = File:Scott_B_and_Beth_B_poster_for_THE_OFFENDERS.jpg
| image = Beth B.jpg
| image_size =
| image_size =
| caption =
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}}
}}


'''Scott B and Beth B''' (also known as '''Scott and Beth B''', '''Beth and Scott B''' or '''The Bs''' after B Movies) were among the best-known New York [[No Wave]] [[underground film]] makers of the late 1970s and early 1980s.<ref>{{cite web|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|author=Thomas, Kevin|url=http://articles.latimes.com/1993-11-01/entertainment/ca-51909_1_independent-filmmakers|title=Beth B and Scott B: Three Early Visions : Movies: FilmForum focuses on the work of two New York independent filmmakers and their stylish, darkly amusing work.|date=November 1, 1993}}</ref><ref>[[Carlo McCormick]], ''The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984'', Princeton University Press, 2006.</ref><ref>[[Alan W. Moore]] and Marc Miller, eds. ''[[ABC No Rio]] Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery'' New York: ABC No Rio with Collaborative Projects, 1985.</ref><ref>Masters, Marc. ''No Wave''. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-906155-02-5}}</ref><ref>Pearlman, Alison, ''Unpackaging Art of the 1980s''. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2003.</ref><ref>Reynolds, Simon. "Contort Yourself: No Wave New York." In ''Rip It Up and Start Again: Post-punk 1978–84''. London: Faber and Faber, Ltd., 2005.</ref><ref>Taylor, Marvin J. (ed.). ''The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984'', foreword by Lynn Gumpert. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. {{ISBN|0-691-12286-5}}</ref>
'''Scott B and Beth B''' (also known as '''Scott and Beth B''', '''Beth and Scott B''' or '''The Bs''' after B Movies) were among the best-known New York [[No Wave]] [[underground film]] makers of the late 1970s and early 1980s.<ref>{{cite web|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|author=Thomas, Kevin|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-11-01-ca-51909-story.html|title=Beth B and Scott B: Three Early Visions : Movies: FilmForum focuses on the work of two New York independent filmmakers and their stylish, darkly amusing work.|date=November 1, 1993}}</ref><ref>[[Carlo McCormick]], ''The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984'', Princeton University Press, 2006.</ref><ref>[[Alan W. Moore]] and Marc Miller, eds. ''[[ABC No Rio]] Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery'' New York: ABC No Rio with Collaborative Projects, 1985.</ref><ref>Masters, Marc. ''No Wave''. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-906155-02-5}}</ref><ref>Pearlman, Alison, ''Unpackaging Art of the 1980s''. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2003.</ref><ref>Reynolds, Simon. "Contort Yourself: No Wave New York." In ''Rip It Up and Start Again: Post-punk 1978–84''. London: Faber and Faber, Ltd., 2005.</ref><ref>Taylor, Marvin J. (ed.). ''The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984'', foreword by Lynn Gumpert. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. {{ISBN|0-691-12286-5}}</ref>


They went on to form an [[independent film]] production company called B Movies (a [[pun]] on [[B movie]]s), which made the feature film ''[[Vortex (1981 film)|Vortex]]'' on 16-mm film, starring [[Lydia Lunch]] (of [[Teenage Jesus and the Jerks]]) with [[James Russo]], [[William "Bill" Rice|Bill Rice]], [[Haoui Montaug]], [[Richard Prince]], [[Brent Collins]], and [[Ann Magnuson]], among others.<ref name=NYT>{{cite web|authorlink=Vincent Canby|author=Canby, Vincent|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=October 1, 1982|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/01/movies/vortex-from-scott-b-and-beth-b.html|title='VORTEX' FROM SCOTT B AND BETH B}}</ref>
They went on to form an [[independent film]] production company called B Movies (a [[pun]] on [[B movie]]s), which made the feature film ''[[Vortex (1981 film)|Vortex]]'' on 16-mm film, starring [[Lydia Lunch]] (of [[Teenage Jesus and the Jerks]]) with [[James Russo]], [[William "Bill" Rice|Bill Rice]], [[Haoui Montaug]], [[Richard Prince]], [[Brent Collins]], and [[Ann Magnuson]], among others.<ref name=NYT>{{cite web|authorlink=Vincent Canby|author=Canby, Vincent|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=October 1, 1982|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/01/movies/vortex-from-scott-b-and-beth-b.html|title='VORTEX' FROM SCOTT B AND BETH B}}</ref> Beth B is the daughter of painter [[Ida Applebroog]], who has collaborated on two of her films.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/19/arts/design/shes-her-own-artist-and-a-daughters-muse.html "She’s Her Own Artist. And a Daughter’s Muse."], New York Times, Retrieved 17 July 2021.</ref>


==Study and work history==
==Study and work history==
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Scott B and Beth B were among the most significant proponents of the punk bohemia, No Wave, no-budget style of underground punk filmmaking that was concerned with issues of [[simulation]] typical of [[postmodernism]]. Beth studied art at the [[School of Visual Arts]] and Scott was an exhibiting sculptor.<ref name=NW>Masters, Marc. ''No Wave''. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007, p. 156</ref> They married and became associated with [[Colab]] (Collaborative Projects) and worked out of New York City's East Village area in conjunction with [[performance art]]ists and [[noise music]]ians. They created a series of noisy, scruffy, deeply personal short [[Super 8 mm]] films in which they combined violent themes and darkly [[sinister (film)|sinister]] images to explore the manner in which the individual is constrained by society.<ref>Masters, Marc. ''No Wave''. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007, pp. 156 – 157</ref>
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Scott B and Beth B were among the most significant proponents of the punk bohemia, No Wave, no-budget style of underground punk filmmaking that was concerned with issues of [[simulation]] typical of [[postmodernism]]. Beth studied art at the [[School of Visual Arts]] and Scott was an exhibiting sculptor.<ref name=NW>Masters, Marc. ''No Wave''. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007, p. 156</ref> They married and became associated with [[Colab]] (Collaborative Projects) and worked out of New York City's East Village area in conjunction with [[performance art]]ists and [[noise music]]ians. They created a series of noisy, scruffy, deeply personal short [[Super 8 mm]] films in which they combined violent themes and darkly [[sinister (film)|sinister]] images to explore the manner in which the individual is constrained by society.<ref>Masters, Marc. ''No Wave''. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007, pp. 156 – 157</ref>


The Bs' 8mm films were full of downtown obsessions: terror politics, torture, sexual domination and submission, and [[punk rock]] music. The brief length of these films allows them to effectively assault the viewer in a hit-and-run, belt-in-the-gut manner. They would cast musicians and other popular downtown personalities in their films. The Bs cleverly used the scene's social energy with weekly film shoots that were quickly edited and then screened as film serial episodes at music clubs such as the [[Mudd Club]] and [[Max's Kansas City]]. These films are at once contemplative and confrontational, penetrating and politically loaded. Films like this are virtually impossible to criticize because they glory in carefully [[DIY]] style of [[simulate]]d amateurism.
The Bs' 8mm short films were full of downtown obsessions: terror politics, torture, sexual domination and submission, and [[punk rock]] music, presented in an assaultive manner, with musicians and other downtown personalities cast in their films. The films were quickly shot and edited, then screened as weekly film serial episodes at music clubs such as the [[Mudd Club]] and [[Max's Kansas City]].
==Films==


In '''G-Man''', Scott B and Beth B attack society's power structures as they depict a [[cop (film)|cop]] who feels compelled to employ a [[dominatrix]]. [[No Wave Cinema]] maker and artist [[James Nares (artist)|James Nares]] appears in it, among others. It developed out of the short video ''NYPD Arson and Explosions vs. FALN'' that was part of the [[Colab]] project of weekly aired television programs on cable called ''All Color News''.<ref name=NW/>
In '''G-Man''', Scott B and Beth B address society's power structures as they depict a [[cop (film)|cop]] who feels compelled to employ a [[dominatrix]]. [[No Wave Cinema]] maker and artist [[Jamie Nares (artist)|Jamie Nares]] appears in it, among others. It developed out of the short video ''NYPD Arson and Explosions vs. FALN'' that was part of the [[Colab]] project of weekly aired television programs on cable called ''All Color News''.<ref name=NW/>


'''Black Box''' is the name of a torture contraption that was devised in the United States and used in foreign nations. In ''[[Black Box (1978 film)|Black Box]]'', a man played by [[Bob Mason (actor)|Bob Mason]] is imprisoned in one such box, where he is [[torture]]d and the viewer endures his suffering. ''Black Box'' encapsulate all the Bs' major themes: crime, [[mind control]], and [[sexual repression]] with the "minimal perfect-build" aesthetic of the man-sized vibrating containers Scott produced in his 1975 sculptor days. The plot is simple: a passive innocent leaves his tawdry room, neon [[Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four)|Big Brother]] sign blinking ominously through the window, ''[[Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series)|Mission: Impossible]]'' flickering on the TV, and amorous girlfriend draped across the bed, to be kidnapped [[Patty Hearst]]-style by a gang of punk thought-police. Menaced by an ogreish mad scientist, stripped, hung upside down, and tormented by surly, "shut up and suffer", [[Lydia Lunch]], the passive innocent is finally crammed into the dread refrigerator, where he, and we, are bombarded by a 10-minute crescendo of sound and light.<ref name="LL">{{cite news|url=http://www.luxonline.org.uk/articles/no_wavelength(1).html|title=No Wavelength: The Para-Punk Underground|newspaper=[[The Village Voice]]|authorlink=J. Hoberman|author=Hoberman, J.|date=May 1979}}</ref> Appearing in Black Box is [[Bob Mason (actor)|Bob Mason]] (the hostage), [[Kiki Smith]], [[Lydia Lunch]], Christof Kohlhofer, Harvey Robbins, and Ulli Rimkus. According to film scholar [[Gwendolyn Audrey Foster]], ''Black Box'' is a "terrifying allegory of societal restriction of the individual."<ref name="twsGAF">[[Gwendolyn Audrey Foster]], 1995, Greenwood Press, Westport (CT) & London, ''Women Film Directors: An International Bio-Critical Dictionary'', Retrieved December 15, 2014, see page(s): 29</ref>
'''Black Box''' is the name of a torture contraption that was devised in the United States and used in foreign nations. In ''[[Black Box (1978 film)|Black Box]]'', a man played by [[Bob Mason (actor)|Bob Mason]] is imprisoned in one such box, where he is [[torture]]d and the viewer endures his suffering. ''Black Box'' encapsulate all the Bs' major themes: crime, [[Brainwashing|mind control]], and [[sexual repression]] with the "minimal perfect-build" aesthetic of the man-sized vibrating containers Scott produced in his 1975 sculptor days. The plot is simple: a passive innocent leaves his tawdry room, neon [[Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four)|Big Brother]] sign blinking through the window, ''[[Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series)|Mission: Impossible]]'' flickering on the TV, and girlfriend draped across the bed, to be kidnapped [[Patty Hearst]]-style by a gang of punk thought-police. Menaced by an mad scientist, stripped, hung upside down, and tormented by surly, "shut up and suffer", [[Lydia Lunch]], he is finally crammed into the dread refrigerator, where he, and we, are bombarded by a 10-minute crescendo of sound and light.<ref name="LL">{{cite news|url=http://www.luxonline.org.uk/articles/no_wavelength(1).html|title=No Wavelength: The Para-Punk Underground|newspaper=[[The Village Voice]]|authorlink=J. Hoberman|author=Hoberman, J.|date=May 1979}}</ref> Appearing in Black Box is [[Bob Mason (actor)|Bob Mason]] (the hostage), [[Kiki Smith]], [[Lydia Lunch]], Christof Kohlhofer, Harvey Robbins, and Ulli Rimkus. According to film scholar [[Gwendolyn Audrey Foster]], ''Black Box'' is a "terrifying allegory of societal restriction of the individual."<ref name="twsGAF">[[Gwendolyn Audrey Foster]], 1995, Greenwood Press, Westport (CT) & London, ''Women Film Directors: An International Bio-Critical Dictionary'', Retrieved December 15, 2014, see page(s): 29</ref>


'''Letters to Dad''' For 11 minutes [[No Wave]] personalities such as [[Pat Place]], [[Arto Lindsay]], [[Vivienne Dick]], [[John Ahearn]], [[Kiki Smith]], [[Tom Otterness]] and [[William "Bill" Rice]], read messages addressed to what appears to be a father figure. It emerges after a while, however, that these are in fact letters from the victims of the [[Jonestown massacre]] to guru [[Jim Jones]] shortly before their mass suicide.
⚫
'''The Offenders''', also shot in Super 8&nbsp;mm, is a punk savage satire about a [[kidnapping]]. It originally was presented as a serial that was screened at [[Max's Kansas City]].<ref name=LL/> Appearing in ''The Offenders'' is [[John Lurie]], [[G. H. Hovagimyan]], Scott B, [[Judy Nylon]], art critic [[Edit DeAk]], and [[Lydia Lunch]], among others. The full version was shown at [[Film Forum]] and other film houses during the height of the New York City crime wave.<ref name=NW2>Masters, Marc. ''No Wave''. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007, p. 160</ref>

⚫
'''The Offenders''', also shot in Super 8&nbsp;mm, is a satire about a [[kidnapping]]. ''[[The Offenders (1980 Film)|The Offenders]]'' was originally presented as a series of serial screenings at [[Max's Kansas City]]<ref name=LL/> and the [[Mudd Club]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Boch|first=Richard|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/972429558|title=The Mudd Club|publisher=[[Feral House]]|year=2017|isbn=978-1-62731-051-2|location=Port Townsend, WA|pages=80|language=English|oclc=972429558}}</ref> Appearing in ''The Offenders'' is [[John Lurie]], [[G. H. Hovagimyan]], Scott B, [[Judy Nylon]], art critic [[Edit DeAk]], and [[Lydia Lunch]], among others. The full version was shown at [[Film Forum]] and other film houses during the height of the New York City crime wave.<ref name=NW2>Masters, Marc. ''No Wave''. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007, p. 160</ref>


'''Vortex''', shot in 16&nbsp;mm and made for $70,000 thanks to a [[National Endowment for the Arts]] grant via [[Colab]],<ref>Masters, Marc. ''No Wave''. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007, p. 151</ref> is a [[film noir]]ish drama featuring frequent collaborator Lydia Lunch as a detective who becomes immersed in corporate chicanery and the exploitation of politicians by companies soliciting defense contracts. The soundtrack for ''[[Vortex (1981 film)|Vortex]]'' contains [[noise music]] by [[Richard Edson]], Lydia Lunch, [[Adele Bertei]], [[Kristian Hoffman]], and The Bs. ''Vortex'' has been called the last No Wave film made.<ref name="NW2" />
'''Vortex''', shot in 16&nbsp;mm and made for $70,000 thanks to a [[National Endowment for the Arts]] grant via [[Colab]],<ref>Masters, Marc. ''No Wave''. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007, p. 151</ref> is a [[film noir]]ish drama featuring frequent collaborator Lydia Lunch as a detective who becomes immersed in corporate chicanery and the exploitation of politicians by companies soliciting defense contracts. The soundtrack for ''[[Vortex (1981 film)|Vortex]]'' contains [[noise music]] by [[Richard Edson]], Lydia Lunch, [[Adele Bertei]], [[Kristian Hoffman]], and The Bs. ''Vortex'' has been called the last No Wave film made.<ref name="NW2" />


==Post-Collaboration work history==
==Post-Collaboration work history==
*In 1987, Scott B and [[Joseph Nechvatal]] collaborated on an art performance at [[Hallwalls]] based on the poetry of [[St. John of the Cross]], [[Flaubert]]'s ''Temptation of St. Anthony'' and works of [[Jean Genet]] and [[Georges Bataille]] called ''Not a Door: A Spectacle''. Featured the actors [[Richard Edson]] and [[Mark Boone Junior]].<ref>[[https://www.hallwalls.org/performance/1470.html]] Scott B and Joseph Nechvatal : ''Not a Door: A Spectacle'' at Hallwalls, September 1987</ref>
*In 1987, Scott B and [[Joseph Nechvatal]] collaborated on an art performance at [[Hallwalls]] based on the poetry of [[St. John of the Cross]], [[Flaubert]]'s ''Temptation of St. Anthony'' and works of [[Jean Genet]] and [[Georges Bataille]] called ''Not a Door: A Spectacle'', which featured the actors [[Richard Edson]] and [[Mark Boone Junior]].<ref>{{cite web|work=Hallwalls.org|url=https://www.hallwalls.org/performance/1470.html|title=Scott B and Joseph Nechvatal : ''Not a Door: A Spectacle'' at Hallwalls|date=September 1987}}</ref>
* Beth B went on to direct such films as ''[[Salvation!]]''<ref>{{cite web|work=[[The New York Times]]|authorlink=Vincent Canby|author=Canby, Vincent|title=Salvation Have You Said Your Prayers Today (1987) TV EVANGELISM IS SATIRIZED IN 'SALVATION!'|date=May 31, 1987|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9907EFDF153AF932A05756C0A961948260}}</ref> and ''[[Two Small Bodies]]''.<ref>{{cite web|work=[[The New York Times]]|title=Two Small Bodies (1994) Review/Film; Did She or Didn't She? Commit Murder, That Is|author=James, Caryn|date=April 15, 1994|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9507EED71E3EF936A25757C0A962958260}}</ref>
* Beth B went on to direct such films as ''[[Salvation!]]''<ref>{{cite web|work=[[The New York Times]]|authorlink=Vincent Canby|author=Canby, Vincent|title=Salvation Have You Said Your Prayers Today (1987) TV EVANGELISM IS SATIRIZED IN 'SALVATION!'|date=May 31, 1987|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9907EFDF153AF932A05756C0A961948260}}</ref> and ''[[Two Small Bodies]]''.<ref>{{cite web|work=[[The New York Times]]|title=Two Small Bodies (1994) Review/Film; Did She or Didn't She? Commit Murder, That Is|author=James, Caryn|date=April 15, 1994|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9507EED71E3EF936A25757C0A962958260}}</ref>


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*''[[Black Box (1978 film)|Black Box]]'' (1978)
*''[[Black Box (1978 film)|Black Box]]'' (1978)
*''Letters to Dad'' (1979)
*''Letters to Dad'' (1979)
*''The Offenders'' (1980)
*''[[The Offenders (1980 Film)|The Offenders]]'' (1980)
*''The Trap Door'' (1981)
*''The Trap Door'' (1981)
*''[[Vortex (1981 film)|Vortex]]'' (1981)
*''[[Vortex (1981 film)|Vortex]]'' (1981)
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*2013: ''[[Exposed (2013 film)|Exposed]]''
*2013: ''[[Exposed (2013 film)|Exposed]]''
*2016: ''Call Her Applebroog''
*2016: ''Call Her Applebroog''
*2019: ''[[Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over]]''

==Legacy==
In 2023, the No Wave movement, including No Wave Cinema, received institutional recognition at the [[Centre Pompidou]] in Paris with a Nicolas Ballet curated exhibition entitled ''Who You Staring At: Culture visuelle de la scène no wave des années 1970 et 1980'' (''Visual culture of the no wave scene in the 1970s and 1980s''). Featured in the installation was Scott B and Beth B's 11 minute film ''Letters to Dad'' (1979). An interview with Beth B, No Wave film screenings and musical performances, with three recorded conversations with No Wave artists, were included as part of the exhibition.<ref>[https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/collection/film-and-new-media/who-you-staring-at] ''Who You Staring At?: Visual culture of the no wave scene in the 1970s and 1980s'' February 1 – June 19, 2023, Film, Video, Sound and Digital Collections</ref>


==References==
==References==
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==External links==
==External links==
*{{imdb name|0044568|Scott B}}
*{{IMDb name|0044568|Scott B}}
*{{imdb name|0044579|Beth B}}
*{{IMDb name|0044579|Beth B}}
*{{official|http://www.bethbproductions.com|Beth B official site}}
*{{official|http://www.bethbproductions.com|Beth B official site}}
*[http://www.ubu.com/film/b_g.html ''G-Man''] (1978) archived on [[Ubuweb]], [http://www.ubu.com/film/b_stigmata.html ''Stigmata'' (38:13) (1991)]


{{authority control}}
{{authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott B and Beth B}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:B, Scott and Beth}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Postmodern artists]]
[[Category:American postmodern artists]]
[[Category:Artists from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Artists from New York (state)]]
[[Category:American conceptual artists]]
[[Category:American conceptual artists]]
[[Category:American experimental filmmakers]]
[[Category:American experimental filmmakers]]
[[Category:American film producers]]
[[Category:Film producers from New York (state)]]
[[Category:American screenwriters]]
[[Category:American male screenwriters]]
[[Category:American film directors]]
[[Category:American women screenwriters]]
[[Category:Film directors from New York (state)]]
[[Category:American theatre directors]]
[[Category:American theatre directors]]
[[Category:American women theatre directors]]
[[Category:New Wave]]
[[Category:New Wave]]
[[Category:Punk people]]
[[Category:Punk people]]
[[Category:Screenwriting duos]]
[[Category:American male actors]]
[[Category:American male actors]]
[[Category:American actresses]]
[[Category:20th-century American actresses]]
[[Category:21st-century American actresses]]
[[Category:American women film producers]]
[[Category:American women film producers]]
[[Category:Women experimental filmmakers]]
[[Category:American women experimental filmmakers]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:20th-century American women artists]]
[[Category:Women in punk]]

Latest revision as of 09:48, 26 November 2024

Beth and Scott B's Black Box and G-Man flyer for 1978 screenings at P.S. 1 featuring Jamie Nares
Scott B
Born
United States
NationalityAmerican
Other namesScott Billingsley
Occupation(s)Film director, producer, screenwriter
Known forNo Wave, Colab
Beth B
Born (1955-04-14) April 14, 1955 (age 69)
New York City, New York, United States
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Film director, producer, screenwriter
Known forNo Wave

Scott B and Beth B (also known as Scott and Beth B, Beth and Scott B or The Bs after B Movies) were among the best-known New York No Wave underground film makers of the late 1970s and early 1980s.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

They went on to form an independent film production company called B Movies (a pun on B movies), which made the feature film Vortex on 16-mm film, starring Lydia Lunch (of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks) with James Russo, Bill Rice, Haoui Montaug, Richard Prince, Brent Collins, and Ann Magnuson, among others.[8] Beth B is the daughter of painter Ida Applebroog, who has collaborated on two of her films.[9]

Study and work history

[edit]

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Scott B and Beth B were among the most significant proponents of the punk bohemia, No Wave, no-budget style of underground punk filmmaking that was concerned with issues of simulation typical of postmodernism. Beth studied art at the School of Visual Arts and Scott was an exhibiting sculptor.[10] They married and became associated with Colab (Collaborative Projects) and worked out of New York City's East Village area in conjunction with performance artists and noise musicians. They created a series of noisy, scruffy, deeply personal short Super 8 mm films in which they combined violent themes and darkly sinister images to explore the manner in which the individual is constrained by society.[11]

The Bs' 8mm short films were full of downtown obsessions: terror politics, torture, sexual domination and submission, and punk rock music, presented in an assaultive manner, with musicians and other downtown personalities cast in their films. The films were quickly shot and edited, then screened as weekly film serial episodes at music clubs such as the Mudd Club and Max's Kansas City.

Films

[edit]

In G-Man, Scott B and Beth B address society's power structures as they depict a cop who feels compelled to employ a dominatrix. No Wave Cinema maker and artist Jamie Nares appears in it, among others. It developed out of the short video NYPD Arson and Explosions vs. FALN that was part of the Colab project of weekly aired television programs on cable called All Color News.[10]

Black Box is the name of a torture contraption that was devised in the United States and used in foreign nations. In Black Box, a man played by Bob Mason is imprisoned in one such box, where he is tortured and the viewer endures his suffering. Black Box encapsulate all the Bs' major themes: crime, mind control, and sexual repression with the "minimal perfect-build" aesthetic of the man-sized vibrating containers Scott produced in his 1975 sculptor days. The plot is simple: a passive innocent leaves his tawdry room, neon Big Brother sign blinking through the window, Mission: Impossible flickering on the TV, and girlfriend draped across the bed, to be kidnapped Patty Hearst-style by a gang of punk thought-police. Menaced by an mad scientist, stripped, hung upside down, and tormented by surly, "shut up and suffer", Lydia Lunch, he is finally crammed into the dread refrigerator, where he, and we, are bombarded by a 10-minute crescendo of sound and light.[12] Appearing in Black Box is Bob Mason (the hostage), Kiki Smith, Lydia Lunch, Christof Kohlhofer, Harvey Robbins, and Ulli Rimkus. According to film scholar Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Black Box is a "terrifying allegory of societal restriction of the individual."[13]

Letters to Dad For 11 minutes No Wave personalities such as Pat Place, Arto Lindsay, Vivienne Dick, John Ahearn, Kiki Smith, Tom Otterness and William "Bill" Rice, read messages addressed to what appears to be a father figure. It emerges after a while, however, that these are in fact letters from the victims of the Jonestown massacre to guru Jim Jones shortly before their mass suicide.

The Offenders, also shot in Super 8 mm, is a satire about a kidnapping. The Offenders was originally presented as a series of serial screenings at Max's Kansas City[12] and the Mudd Club.[14] Appearing in The Offenders is John Lurie, G. H. Hovagimyan, Scott B, Judy Nylon, art critic Edit DeAk, and Lydia Lunch, among others. The full version was shown at Film Forum and other film houses during the height of the New York City crime wave.[15]

Vortex, shot in 16 mm and made for $70,000 thanks to a National Endowment for the Arts grant via Colab,[16] is a film noirish drama featuring frequent collaborator Lydia Lunch as a detective who becomes immersed in corporate chicanery and the exploitation of politicians by companies soliciting defense contracts. The soundtrack for Vortex contains noise music by Richard Edson, Lydia Lunch, Adele Bertei, Kristian Hoffman, and The Bs. Vortex has been called the last No Wave film made.[15]

Post-Collaboration work history

[edit]

Scott B and Beth B filmography

[edit]

Beth B solo filmography

[edit]
  • 1987: Salvation!
  • 1989: Belladonna (short) (actor, co-director with Ida Applebroog)
  • 1991: American Nightmare (short)
  • 1991: Thanatopsis (short)
  • 1991: Stigmata (short)
  • 1991: Shut Up and Suffer (short)
  • 1992: Amnesia (short)
  • 1993: Two Small Bodies (co-writer, co-producer)
  • 1993: Under Lock and Key (short)
  • 1994: High Heel Nights (short)
  • 1995: ”Out of Sight/Out of Mind” (short)
  • 1996: Visiting Desire (documentary) (cinematographer, producer, sound)
  • 2013: Exposed
  • 2016: Call Her Applebroog
  • 2019: Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over

Legacy

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In 2023, the No Wave movement, including No Wave Cinema, received institutional recognition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris with a Nicolas Ballet curated exhibition entitled Who You Staring At: Culture visuelle de la scène no wave des années 1970 et 1980 (Visual culture of the no wave scene in the 1970s and 1980s). Featured in the installation was Scott B and Beth B's 11 minute film Letters to Dad (1979). An interview with Beth B, No Wave film screenings and musical performances, with three recorded conversations with No Wave artists, were included as part of the exhibition.[20]

References

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  1. ^ Thomas, Kevin (November 1, 1993). "Beth B and Scott B: Three Early Visions : Movies: FilmForum focuses on the work of two New York independent filmmakers and their stylish, darkly amusing work". Los Angeles Times.
  2. ^ Carlo McCormick, The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984, Princeton University Press, 2006.
  3. ^ Alan W. Moore and Marc Miller, eds. ABC No Rio Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery New York: ABC No Rio with Collaborative Projects, 1985.
  4. ^ Masters, Marc. No Wave. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-1-906155-02-5
  5. ^ Pearlman, Alison, Unpackaging Art of the 1980s. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2003.
  6. ^ Reynolds, Simon. "Contort Yourself: No Wave New York." In Rip It Up and Start Again: Post-punk 1978–84. London: Faber and Faber, Ltd., 2005.
  7. ^ Taylor, Marvin J. (ed.). The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984, foreword by Lynn Gumpert. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-691-12286-5
  8. ^ Canby, Vincent (October 1, 1982). "'VORTEX' FROM SCOTT B AND BETH B". The New York Times.
  9. ^ "She’s Her Own Artist. And a Daughter’s Muse.", New York Times, Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  10. ^ a b Masters, Marc. No Wave. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007, p. 156
  11. ^ Masters, Marc. No Wave. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007, pp. 156 – 157
  12. ^ a b Hoberman, J. (May 1979). "No Wavelength: The Para-Punk Underground". The Village Voice.
  13. ^ Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, 1995, Greenwood Press, Westport (CT) & London, Women Film Directors: An International Bio-Critical Dictionary, Retrieved December 15, 2014, see page(s): 29
  14. ^ Boch, Richard (2017). The Mudd Club. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-62731-051-2. OCLC 972429558.
  15. ^ a b Masters, Marc. No Wave. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007, p. 160
  16. ^ Masters, Marc. No Wave. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007, p. 151
  17. ^ "Scott B and Joseph Nechvatal : Not a Door: A Spectacle at Hallwalls". Hallwalls.org. September 1987.
  18. ^ Canby, Vincent (May 31, 1987). "Salvation Have You Said Your Prayers Today (1987) TV EVANGELISM IS SATIRIZED IN 'SALVATION!'". The New York Times.
  19. ^ James, Caryn (April 15, 1994). "Two Small Bodies (1994) Review/Film; Did She or Didn't She? Commit Murder, That Is". The New York Times.
  20. ^ [1] Who You Staring At?: Visual culture of the no wave scene in the 1970s and 1980s February 1 – June 19, 2023, Film, Video, Sound and Digital Collections
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