Alle gegen Alles: Punk@50

By 1976, the once underground punk movement had exploded across the world, bringing with it a bold new style, an anti-establishment ethos, and a powerful do-it-yourself means of political and personal expression. In celebration of fifty years of punk, the German Film Office and the Goethe-Instituts in North America are pleased to present Alle gegen Alles: Punk@50, a series streaming free on Goethe on Demand through December 31.  

Documentaries on the punk scene in both East and West Germany, a look into all-female bands bashing gender expectations, and narrative features about young people finding their voices using the movement’s tools of rebellion—this series looks to punk’s past as an explosive force of contestation and its present as an enduring antidote to modern conformity.  

Presented as part of Alle gegen Alles. Punk@50, a multi-city initiative marking the fiftieth anniversary of punk, and Among Friends – Unter Freunden, a campaign of the Goethe-Institut USA to celebrate and strengthen transatlantic friendship.

Film selection:

whisper & SHOUT (1988)
Dir. Dieter Schumann
In East Germany’s first (and only) state-sanctioned documentary report on the country’s rock and punk scene, young musicians and their devotees discuss subculture, economic conditions, and their prospects for the future. The result is a unique generational portrait of music and protest just before German reunification.

Play It Loud! (2003)
Dir. Benjamin Quabeck
Hoping to find his foothold as a music manager, young bank clerk Harry resorts to ever-riskier measures to book his friends’ band on stage with legendary electropunks D.A.F. Half musical comedy, half crime thriller, Quabeck’s second feature is a gutsy love letter to the kids at the vanguard of the punk movement.

Dorfpunks (2009)
Dir. Lars Jessen
In the summer of 1984, seventeen-year-old Malte (a.k.a. “Roddy Dangerblood”) gets his first taste of rebellion when punk arrives in his rural hometown. Based on the autobiographical novel by musician Rocko Schamoni, Jessen’s clever coming-of-age tale brings punk to the German countryside for an unlikely confrontation between Heimat and anarchy.

B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin (2015)
Dirs. Jörg A. Hoppe, Klaus Maeck, Heiko Lange, Miriam Dehne
Manchester punk acolyte Mark Reeder leads a raw and riotous tour of the 80s Berlin underground, assembled from a decade of his fascinating amateur footage and featuring appearances by Nick Cave, Christiane F., and Nena.

Just Do It! She-Punks from 1977 to Today (2024)
Dir. Reto Caduff
In Caduff’s nervy documentary, members of pioneering all-female bands like Östro 430, Mania D, and Kleenex trace their history of fighting conservative gender roles and sexual repression on the one hand and the punk movement’s own macho tendencies on the other.