Bloodied but Unbowed

a film by Susanne Tabata

Toronto Premiere Screening, part of NXNE
June 17 – 12 Noon – Toronto Underground Cinema - 186 Spadina Ave.

That night, the stage will be rattled with a special performance by Keith Morris and his band OFF!  at the Horsehshoe Tavern

Broadcast News
Bloodied But Unbowed - World Broadcast Premiere - TVO July 7, 9:00pm
followed by a national broadcast on Super Channel (date/time TBC).

(Toronto – June 10, 2011) Bloodied But Unbowed is the first in-depth look at the unique and creatively blazing Vancouver punk scene between 1977-1982. Touching on universal themes of alienation, rebellion, loss of innocence & regret, it is a true document of a scene marked by raunchy humour, illuminated via vast archival performance footage and commentary.

Bands like DOA, Subhumans, Young Canadians, Pointed Sticks, Modernettes, UJ3RK5, and the Dishrags, helped forge the city’s reputation as an alternative Mecca. Its sound and scene attracted and influenced the likes of Kurt Cobain, Guns N’ Roses’ bassist Duff McKagan, Jello Biafra, Bob Rock, Gerry Barad, and the hardcore king of all media, Henry Rollins.

Leather, spit, beer, drugs, sex and righteously-enraged music terrified the mainstream in Vancouver in the 70s. Bloodied But Unbowed captures the ethos of the kids who barely lived through it, as well as those who did not. Drugs wreaked havoc in the punk scene, snuffing short the lives of many luminaries. But despite the harsh toll, some of Vancouver’s most infamous sons (including Joe ***censored*** and eternal bad boy Randy Rampage) are still on the road, playing gigs, pissing on squares and generally causing an uproar.

Narrated by Billy Hopeless and packed with anger, drama and tragedy, Bloodied But Unbowed captures the rise and fall of an epic era.

About Director Susanne Tabata
On the heels of SkateGirl and 49Degrees, Susanne returns with her first documentary feature, Bloodied But Unbowed - aka “thepunkmovie” - profiling the early punk scene in Vancouver as told by the surviving legends. Susanne was a DJ at UBC’s CITR radio in that era, and she participated in the first live late-night cable music show Nite Dreems. Susanne has developed and produced many educational programs for young audiences in areas of social justice. Susanne is a digital media producer and small format production specialist whose credits include Jason Priestley’s Barenaked In America. Susanne broke out as a director with 49Degrees, a documentary on the subculture of Canadian surfing. FUELTV Los Angeles picked up the doc and invited Susanne to enter a filmmaking contest. Ultimately, she was one of 10 directors chosen from 250+ to get a film greenlit. The result was SkateGirl (FoxFUEL) a history of women’s professional skateboarding. Susanne was born on Vancouver Island in Nanaimo and lived in Tokyo & Victoria before moving back to Vancouver to study International Relations at the University of British Columbia.

What The Critics Say:
 http://www.thepunkmovie.com/press

“Bloodied but Unbowed takes a loving-and long overdue-look at one of the most fertile scenes in North American music history, with Tabata mixing rare archival footage with modern-day interviews with those who were on the frontlines.” -Straight.com

“Marvellous” - Vancouver Sun

“Bloodied But Unbowed is easily the most definitive and entertaining retrospective on Vancouver’s punk scene in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s committed to film… Moving and thoughtful.” - Vancouver Courier

“Tabata contextualizes the scene up north, while also capturing the moment with the still-vital music, genuine-article photos and footage from Dennis Hopper’s Out of the Blue (1980), and those ironclad anecdotes, ending with the images of a road-worn D.O.A. and an encounter with the vanquished hope of the punk scene, Art Bergmann.” – San Francisco Bay Guardian