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Devo
Chris Smith
- 2024
- USA, Great-Britain
- Musical documentary
- 1h35mn
- Original version with French subtitles
- Color
European premiere
A trip to planet “Devo”. Starting from the famous band’s creation in 1972 after the Kent State University massacre, where two years earlier an anti war demonstration had been bloodily repressed, Chris Smith pays homage to the genius of its members, to the strength of this essential musical milestone of 70s and 80s counter-culture’s message.
The multiple levels of “Whip it”, a devastating hymn to masturbation, both political and sexual, could alone summarize this osmose of playfulness and subversion, where contestation comes from disengagement. By himself adopting the band’s playful form, Chris Smith astutely analyzes how much the Dada attitude of their performances and their videos was a tool for insubordination, in an era when rebellion has been swallowed by the system. To answer their social “devo-lution” concept, they started a revolution through derision, using nonsense as disobedience.
Screenings
06/09 • 15h15 • Screen 300
11/09 • 17h00 • Screen 100
Credits
- With : Mark Mothersbaugh, Robert Mothersbaugh, Gerald Casale, Bob Casale...
- Screenplay : Chris Smith
- Photography : Chris Smith
- Editing : Joey Scoma
- Music by : Devo
- Production : Danny Gabai, Anita Greenspan, Chris Holmes, David C. McCourt
