Tommy Turner
Acting
Biography
Tommy Turner is considered a key figure of the Downtown No Wave and Cinema of Transgression movements. While working days as a genetic research scientist and nights as a bartender at the Peppermint Lounge, the New York native rose to prominence through his zine Redrum and collaborations with Richard Kern and David Wojnarowicz.
Known For
The Hardcore Collection
This DVD features 13 provocative short films by Richard Kern. Color & B&W film shorts with Lydia Lunch, Henry Rollins and more. Includes Death Valley 69 , The Right Side Of My Brain, You Killed Me First, The Bitches, The Sewing Circle, X is Y, Fingered, Horoscope, Submit to Me Now, My Nightmare, Manhattan Loves Suicides, Submit to Me, and Evil Cameraman. Music from Sonic Youth, Cop Shoot Cop, J.G. Thirwell, Butthole Surfers.
Where Evil Dwells
Loosely based on an infamous 1984 Long Island murder case involving Satan-worshiping, teenage drug freaks (Knights of the Black Circle), David Wojnarowicz and Tommy Turner’s Where Evil Dwells is a low-budget D.I.Y. movie that walks the jagged lines between splatter flick, experimental film and transgressive art. The original footage was destroyed in a fire and the only footage that survived is this 28 minute preview that was put together for the Downtown New York Film Festival in 1985.
Blank City
In the years before Ronald Reagan took office, Manhattan was in ruins. But true art has never come from comfort, and it was precisely those dire circumstances that inspired artists like Jim Jarmusch, Lizzy Borden, and Amos Poe to produce some of their best works. Taking their cues from punk rock and new wave music, these young maverick filmmakers confronted viewers with a stark reality that stood in powerful contrast to the escapist product being churned out by Hollywood.
The Acid King
The story of Ricky Kasso, an American teenager who murdered his friend, Gary Lauwers, in an alleged "Satanic sacrifice" during the summer of 1984.
Black Hearts Bleed Red
A stark adaptation of Flannery O’Connor’s short story A Good Man Is Hard To Find.
Woman at the Wheel
A woman takes each of her boyfriends - one poor and one rich- for a drive in her new car. Each argues with her and insists on taking the wheel. She beats one of them up, before crashing into a group of youths and, finally, a wall.
Red Spirit Lake
After a vengeful sorceress is tortured and killed by a corrupt industrialist looking to harness the spectral powers of Red Spirit Lake, her niece arrives in snow covered Angel Falls to settle her aunt's estate.
I Hate You Now
“I Hate You Now” is about when you’re in a relationship, and the person you’re in a relationship with starts doing everything you do. So in the film the guy has a burned up face, and his girlfriend burns her face so she can be like him. — Richard Kern
Submit to Me
Cinema of Transgression pioneers and participants (Lydia Lunch, Lung Leg, Nick Zedd, etc.) perform a series of acts as they submit to director Richard Kern's camera. Originally created for DTNY acid parties; Submit to Me was eventually edited down to 10 minutes and given an accompanying score.
Manhattan Love Suicides
A series of short films by Richard Kern: Stray Dogs, Woman At The Wheel, Thrust In Me, & I Hate You Now.
Filmography
as Himself
as (archive footage)
as Self
as Mechanic
as Man in Nightmare
as Annoying Man
as Peddler
as Peddler (segment "I Hate You Now")