Dave Markey / Biography

David Markey is a resilient and resourceful filmmaker whose integrity and determination have sustained a truly independent career in the shadow of Hollywood and against the backdrop of corporate America for over two and a half decades.The majority of his work has been self-funded, directed, produced and distributed, giving new meaning to the term low budget filmmaking. His body of work is also historically significant, representing a unique record of the punk and alternative music scene in Southern California throughout the 80s and 90s. His dark wit and indefatigable DIY aesthetic continue to drive him, as well as inspire a whole new generation of filmmakers, musicians and artists.Markey's work has been exhibited widely, including theatrical release in the US and Canada of 1991: The Year Punk Broke, cinema screenings in Los Angeles of Desperate Teenage Lovedolls & Lovedolls Superstar Fully Realized, and inclusion of various films in international festivals in Argentina, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark. His work has also been screened widely in the United Kingdom.As a self-taught filmmaker and musician, David Markey brings together alternative music, experimental cinema and contemporary culture in a direct and insightful way. He has been making films and music videos for over 25 years, collaborating with bands such as Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Black Flag and the Meat Puppets to name but a few, as well as visual artists such as Raymond Pettibon and Cameron Jamie.His extensive body of work includes experimental shorts, music videos and feature films, including the music documentary 1991: The Year Punk Broke (1993) - the acclaimed film about the Sonic Youth/Nirvana 1991 European tour, which also features Dinosaur Jr, Babes In Toyland, Gumball and The Ramones.He is also renowned for the super 8 cult classic Desperate Teenage Lovedolls (1984), which chronicles the rise to fame of three runaways who form an all-girl rock band and the troubles they encounter with both their sleazy manager and rival girl gang the She-Devils, and the sequel Lovedolls Superstar (1986), which sees the girls return from their untimely demise to re-conquer the charts and conquer the world - with soundtrack scoring by Sonic Youth, Meat Puppets, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag and Redd Kross. The Desperate Cinema Touring Programme showcases a range of works including shorts, music videos and the yet-to-be released music documentary, (This Is Known As) The Blues Scale (2004), a 40 minute post-script to 1991: The Year Punk Broke that has been cut from outtakes of the original footage and features previously unseen performance and off stage material.

David Markey was born December 3, 1963 in Burbank, California. As a Southern California native, Markey made his first film in 1974 at the age of 11. Because of his age, his parents would not allow him to see "The Exorcist," so he nabbed his father's hand-wound 8mm Brownie camera and made his own version, "The Devil's Exorcist," the only horror film he would ever make (discounting the 1980 feature "The Omenous" which was a horror film parody). For this epic, Markey employed the racially mixed kids that lived in his working-class neighborhood in Santa Monica as actors, casting the inherently compelling, bell-bottom-wearing, well-coiffed Peter Garcia in the lead. Markey appears several times in the film as the victim of his rampant teenage Satanic Homicide. Years later, inspired by the Los Angeles underground hardcore punk scene (The Germs, Red Cross, The Minutemen, etc.), David began playing drums and formed Sin 34 with his other-side-of-the-tracks friends from Beverly Hills High School, Phil Newman and Julie Lanfeld. Soon after fellow Santa Monica High School student Mike "Geek" Glass would join the final line up of the band. Markey continued making films that increasingly reflected the music scene exploding around him, as seen in his documentary "The Slog Movie: LA Hardcore Archives 1981-82". Much like the Do-It-Yourself attitude found in punk zines and bands, David was inspired to make films. In 1984 he directed and produced the Super-8 opus "Desperate Teenage Lovedolls" for $250.00. A sequel "Lovedolls Superstar" followed in 1986. Also that year, New York's Sonic Youth found themselves signed to the influential SST Records. Markey's then-band Painted Willie was also on the label, and a friendship would soon emerge between Thurston and David. You can see these alliances being forged (and Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore's cinematic debuts) in 1987's "Astro Turf," a film based on a nonsensical fever dream of Markey's, 1989's Hollywood tourist nightmare "Lou Believers," and 1991's outrageous "Rap Damage," which could very well be the template for Markey's most seen work, "1991: The Year Punk Broke" which features Sonic Youth, Nirvana, The Ramones, Babes In Toyland, Dinosaur Jr. & Gumball. They are solidified in the sour-faced sarcastic raspberry of 1992's "Grunge Pedal" featuring Pavement's Mark Ibold and Pussy Galore's Julie Kafritz. Also In 1992, the then yet to be filmmaker Sofia Coppola makes a starring appearance in "Burning Palms on Jennifer's Coffee Table," which is Markey's own "Apocalypse Now"-inspired paean to the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising. Another piece delves into the tragedy of a psychotic contemplative teenage girl in 1989's "Tina the Party Pooper." Markey went on to direct 25 music videos, many of which played on 1990s MTV (back when the channel actually aired music video clips), including Sonic Youth "Superstar", Meat Puppets "Scum", Black Flag "Slip It In".