Nick Zedd ( James Franklyn Harding III; January 25, 1956 – February 27, 2022) was an American filmmaker, author, and painter based in
Mexico City
Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...
. He coined the term
Cinema of Transgression in 1985 to describe a loose-knit group of like-minded filmmakers and artists using
shock value and
black humor in their work. These filmmakers and artistic collaborators included
Richard Kern,
Tessa Hughes Freeland,
Lung Leg,
Kembra Pfahler,
Jack Smith and
Lydia Lunch. Under numerous pen names, Zedd edited and wrote the ''Underground Film Bulletin'' (1984–1990) which publicized the work of these filmmakers. The Cinema of Transgression was explored in
Jack Sargeant's book ''
Deathtripping''.
Early life
Zedd was born in
Takoma Park, Maryland, on January 25, 1956. Zedd moved to New York in 1976 to study at Brooklyn's
Pratt Institute and the School of Visual Arts.
Career
Zedd directed several
super-low-budget feature-length movies, including ''They Eat Scum'', ''Geek Maggot Bingo'', ''War Is Menstrual Envy'' and numerous short films. With
Jen Miller, he was a co-creator of the
public access series ''Electra Elf'' (2004–08), featuring New York artists and performers including Miller,
Faceboy and
Andrew J. Lederer. He served as director of photography on another TV series called ''Chop Chop'' (2007), produced by Nate Hill.
Additionally, Zedd acted in such low-budget movies as the
Super 8 film ''
Manhattan Love Suicides'' (1985), ''
What About Me'' (1993), ''Bubblegum'' (1995), ''Jonas in the Desert'' (1997), ''
Terror Firmer
''Terror Firmer'' is a 1998 American comedy horror film directed by Lloyd Kaufman, written by Douglas Buck, Patrick Cassidy, and Kaufman, and starring Will Keenan, Alyce LaTourelle, and Kaufman. The film was produced by the Troma Entertainmen ...
'' (1999), and ''Thus Spake Zarathustra'' (2001). He also appeared in the documentaries ''Llik Your Idols'' (2007) and ''Blank City'' (2010).
Zedd is the author of two autobiographical books, ''Bleed: Part One'' (1992) and ''Totem of the Depraved'' (1997), as well as the self-published novel ''From Entropy to Ecstasy'' (1996). He also contributed to the anthologies ''Up Is Up But So Is Down'', ''Captured'' and ''Low Rent''. In the 1980s Zedd published ten issues of the ''Underground Film Bulletin,'' a
zine intended to promote the
Cinema of Transgression. Issue 4 contained the ''Cinema of Transgression Manifesto,'' which was also published in ''The Theory of Xenomorphosis'' (1998).
In the early 1990s, Zedd toured with
Lisa Crystal Carver's
Suckdog Circus, exhibiting his films. Performing with experimental
noise music
Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound. Noise music include ...
band Zyklon Beatles, Zedd released the "Consume and Die" 7-inch single on Rubric Records in 2000.
[
After exhibiting oil paintings in 2010 at the ADA and Pendu galleries, Zedd presented a major retrospective of films, videos, and paintings at the Microscope Gallery in Brooklyn.
In 2012, he attended a retrospective of his films at the eighth Berlin International Directors Lounge and exhibited work at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in the same city.
In 2013, Zedd published ''The Extremist Manifesto'', an essay denouncing ]contemporary art
Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...
and the class structure that promotes it while announcing the emergence of the Extremist Art movement in Mexico City, which sought to subvert the edicts of established art institutions and curatorial ideologues. This manifesto, first released online, then in a self-published ''Hatred of Capitalism'' magazine issued in Mexico City (in English and Spanish) was reprinted a year later by the Museo Universitario del Chopo, along with two more issues as part of the ''Fanzinoteka'' exhibition. At a screening at the New Museum in New York, Zedd was presented with the Acker Award for Lifetime Achievement, a tribute given to "members of the avant garde arts community who have made outstanding contributions in their discipline in defiance of convention, or else served their fellow writers and artists in outstanding ways".
In 2014, Zedd exhibited three motion pictures at the Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
in New York as part of a posthumous retrospective of films by Christoph Schlingensief, who had cited Zedd as a major influence on his work. Later in 2014, Zedd presented his first public exhibition of paintings in Mexico City, in a group show curated by Aldo Flores at Salon des Aztecas Gallery in Coyoacán. In 2015, Zedd presented his first one-man show of paintings at the V&S Gallery in Mexico City. Zedd also shot an 8mm short entitled ''Paradise Lost'', which was featured in the anthology film ''Impression X'' (2023).
Personal life and death
An outsider artist throughout his life, Zedd never enjoyed commercial success with his films. By the mid-1980s, he regularly resorted to side hustles (such as being a taxi driver), to make ends meet. Peter LeVasseur, Zedd's acquaintance at the time and a former East Village squatter, suggests that he contracted hepatitis C, during that period, from intravenous drug use. "It had to be from intravenous drug use," LeVasseur says. "He seemed to be on heroin
Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...
and coke — both were fashionable at the time, the combo. This was when he was at his deepest, worst part. The pallor, his eyes and sunken cheeks. If you got in his car you’d be afraid".cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
, and hepatitis C
Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection period, people often have mild or no symptoms. Early symptoms can include ...
, in Mexico City, on February 27, 2022, at the age of 63. He was survived by his partner of 15 years, Monica Casanova, as well as a son and a step-daughter.
Legacy
Founder of the Cinema of Transgression movement and part of the late 1970s and early 1980s No Wave group of underground filmmakers in New York City’s Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...
, Zedd exerted a significant influence over a number of directors, from Christoph Schlingensief to Quentin Tarantino. The latter paid tribute to him in his Palme d'Or-winning film, '' Pulp Fiction'' (1994), naming the main antagonist of the "Gold Watch" chapter Zed 'sic''
The Canadian electronic music duo Zeds Dead took their name from the famous dialogue between Butch Coolidge ( Bruce Willis) and Fabienne ( Maria de Medeiros) in Tarantino's film, where he reveals to her that "Zed's dead".
Legendary cult filmmaker John Waters, who was as much a fan of Zedd's lurid and provocative style, as Zedd was of his camp classics, like '' Pink Flamingos'', wrote: "Nick Zedd makes violent, perverted art films from Hell—he’s my kind of director!", and he considered the title of his debut film, ''They Eat Scum'', as his favorite in cinema history.
Filmography
* ''They Eat Scum'' (1979)
* ''The Bogus Man'' (1980), short
* '' Geek Maggot Bingo'' (1983)
References
External links
Nick Zedd's homepage
*
at UbuWeb
Interview at ''Love & Pop''
(archived at the Wayback Machine)
Nick Zedd's ''Extremist Manifesto''
Microscope Gallery: Nick Zedd Films
Watch Online: Cinema of Transgression
Nick Zedd Papers
at Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zedd, Nick
1956 births
2022 deaths
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
American expatriates in Mexico
American experimental filmmakers
American memoirists
Deaths from hepatitis
Deaths from liver cancer in Mexico
Deaths from cirrhosis
Film directors from Maryland
Film theorists
People from Takoma Park, Maryland
Punk filmmakers
Writers from Baltimore
Writers from Mexico City