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 No wave was an avant-garde music genre and visual art scene that emerged in the late 1970s in Downtown New York City. The term was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music. Reacting against punk rock's recycling of rock and r ...

underground film An underground film is a film that is out of the mainstream either in its style, genre or financing. Notable examples include John Waters' ''Pink Flamingos'', David Lynch's ''Eraserhead'', Andy Warhol's ''Blue Movie'', Rosa von Praunheim's ''Tal ...

makers of the late 1970s and early 1980s. They went on to form an

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is film production, produced outside the Major film studios, major film studio system in addition to being produced and distributed by independ ...

production company called B Movies (a

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

B movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...

s), which made the feature film ''

Vortex In fluid dynamics, a vortex (: vortices or vortexes) is a region in a fluid in which the flow revolves around an axis line, which may be straight or curved. Vortices form in stirred fluids, and may be observed in smoke rings, whirlpools in th ...

'' on 16-mm film, starring

Lydia Lunch Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch; June 2, 1959)Martin Charles Strong. ''The Great Indie Discography''. 2003, page 85 is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no ...

(of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks) with James Russo, Bill Rice, Haoui Montaug,

Richard Prince Richard Prince (born August 6, 1949) is an American painter and photographer. In the mid-1970s, Prince made drawings and painterly collages that he has since disowned. His image ''Untitled (Cowboy)'', a photographic reproduction of a photograph ...

, Brent Collins, and Ann Magnuson, among others. Beth B is the daughter of painter Ida Applebroog, who has collaborated on two of her films.

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 A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...

typical of

postmodernism Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, Culture, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting ...

. Beth studied art at the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Silas ...

and Scott was an exhibiting sculptor.Masters, Marc. ''No Wave''. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007, p. 156 They married and became associated with

Colab Colab is the commonly used abbreviation of the New York City artists' group Collaborative Projects, which was formed after a series of open meetings between artists of various disciplines. History Colab members came together as a collective in ...

(Collaborative Projects) and worked out of New York City's East Village area in conjunction with

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

ists and

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 ...

ians. 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. The Bs' 8mm short films were full of downtown obsessions: terror politics, torture, sexual domination and submission, and

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

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 Max's Kansas City was a nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South in New York City, which became a gathering spot for musicians, poets, artists, and politicians in the 1960s and 1970s. It was opened by Mickey Ruskin (1933–1983) in Dece ...

Films

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 A dominatrix ( ; or dominatrices ), or domme, is a woman who takes the dominant role in BDSM activities. The BDSM practice is called female dominance, or femdom. A dominatrix can be of any sexual orientation, but this does not necessarily l ...

. 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

project of weekly aired television programs on cable called ''All Color News''. Black Box is the name of a torture contraption that was devised in the United States and used in foreign nations. In ''

Black Box In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a system which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs (or transfer characteristics), without any knowledge of its internal workings. Its implementation is "opaque" (black). The te ...

'', a man played by Bob Mason is imprisoned in one such box, where he is

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

d and the viewer endures his suffering. ''Black Box'' encapsulate all the Bs' major themes: crime,

mind control Mind control may refer to: Psychology and neurology * Brainwashing, the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques * Brain–computer interface * Hypnosis * Neuroprosthetics, the technology of cont ...

, and

sexual repression Sexual repression is a state in which a person is prevented from expressing their own sexuality or sexual orientation. Sexual repression can be caused by an emotional conflict, in which a person feels guilt, shame, or distress regarding their ...

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",

, he is finally crammed into the dread refrigerator, where he, and we, are bombarded by a 10-minute crescendo of sound and light. Appearing in Black Box is Bob Mason (the hostage),

Kiki Smith Kiki Smith (born January 18, 1954) is a German-born American artist whose work has addressed the themes of sex, birth and regeneration. Her figurative work of the late 1980s and early 1990s confronted subjects such as AIDS, feminism, and gender ...

, 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." 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 Letters to Dad For 11 minutes

personalities such as Pat Place,

Arto Lindsay Arthur Morgan "Arto" Lindsay (born May 28, 1953) is an American guitarist, singer, record producer and experimental composer. He was a member of the pioneering 1970s no wave group DNA, which featured on the 1978 compilation '' No New York''. In ...

, Vivienne Dick, John Ahearn,

, 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 James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American cult leader, preacher and mass murderer who founded and led the Peoples Temple between 1955 and 1978. Jones and the members of his inner circle planned and orchestrat ...

shortly before their mass suicide. The Offenders, also shot in Super 8 mm, is a satire about a

kidnapping Kidnapping or abduction is the unlawful abduction and confinement of a person against their will, and is a crime in many jurisdictions. Kidnapping may be accomplished by use of force or fear, or a victim may be enticed into confinement by frau ...

. '' The Offenders'' was originally presented as a series of serial screenings at

and the Mudd Club. Appearing in ''The Offenders'' is

John Lurie John Lurie (born December 14, 1952) is an American musician, painter, actor, director, and producer. He co-founded the Lounge Lizards jazz ensemble; has acted in 19 films, including ''Stranger than Paradise'' and '' Down by Law''; has composed ...

, G. H. Hovagimyan, Scott B,

Judy Nylon Judy Nylon (born Judith Anne Niland in 1948) is a multidisciplinary United States, American artist who moved to London in 1970. She was half of the Punk rock, punk rock music group Snatch, which also featured fellow American expat Patti Palladin. ...

, art critic Edit DeAk, and

, among others. The full version was shown at

Film Forum The Film Forum is a nonprofit movie theater at 209 West Houston Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. It is a four-screen cinema open 365 days a year, with up to 250,000 annual admissions, nearly 500 seats, 60 employees, over ...

and other film houses during the height of the New York City crime wave.Masters, Marc. ''No Wave''. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007, p. 160 Vortex, shot in 16 mm and made for $70,000 thanks to a

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

grant via

, is a

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

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 ''

'' contains

by Richard Edson, Lydia Lunch, Adele Bertei,

Kristian Hoffman Kristian Hoffman (b. July 10, 1952) is an American musician, record producer and visual artist. As a member of Bleaker St. Incident,alongside Ann Magnuson and Robert Mache,Hoffman spearheaded the Anti-folk music movement. Concurrently, he was in ...

, and The Bs. ''Vortex'' has been called the last No Wave film made.

Post-Collaboration work history

*In 1987, Scott B and

Joseph Nechvatal Joseph Nechvatal (born January 15, 1951) is an American post-conceptual digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom computer viruses. Life and work Joseph Nechva ...

collaborated on an art performance at

Hallwalls Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center (aka Hallwalls) is a non-profit art organization located in Buffalo, New York. Since 1974, Hallwalls has shown and shows the work of contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds who work in film, video, literatu ...

based on the poetry of St. John of the Cross,

Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...

's ''Temptation of St. Anthony'' and works of

Jean Genet Jean Genet (; ; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels '' The Th ...

and

Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 8 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...

called ''Not a Door: A Spectacle'', which featured the actors Richard Edson and Mark Boone Junior. * Beth B went on to direct such films as '' Salvation!'' and '' Two Small Bodies''.

Scott B and Beth B filmography

*''G-Man'' (1978) *''

'' (1978) *''Letters to Dad'' (1979) *'' The Offenders'' (1980) *''The Trap Door'' (1981) *''

'' (1981)

Beth B solo filmography

*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 Expose, exposé, or exposed may refer to: News sources * Exposé (journalism), a form of investigative journalism * '' The Exposé'', a British conspiracist website * '' Exeposé'', a student-run newspaper of the University of Exeter Film and TV ...

'' *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 The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

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.
''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

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:B, Scott and Beth Living people American postmodern artists Artists from New York (state) American conceptual artists American experimental filmmakers Film producers from New York (state) American male screenwriters American women screenwriters Film directors from New York (state) American theatre directors American women theatre directors New Wave Punk people Screenwriting duos American male actors 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses American women film producers American women experimental filmmakers 20th-century births 20th-century American women artists Women in punk