Produced by Green Day, the film traces the story of the punk movement which originated on West Coast near San Francisco at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s.
The initial idea for making a documentary about the unique phenomenon of the Californian underground that Green Day—with lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong—is an integral part of, first arose several years ago. The final version is a 156-minute saga featuring archival footage along with new interviews, where the authors talk to the pioneers and all stars of East Bay punk, including the musicians from the Dead Kennedys, Avengers, Flipper, NOFX, and many others, over a hundred and fifty bands overall. The narrator aggregating this mosaic picture into a consistent story is Iggy Pop, a veteran punk, founder of The Stooges, and a colossal figure in contemporary music.
Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk is the first full-length film by director Corbett Redford who previously made music videos for his own band. Concentrating on the characters of 1980s and 1990s American punk, and the venues associated with them, the movie also pays homage to an essential attribute of many subcultures—the so-called zines, DIY publications usually made of handwritten texts, illustrations and comic strips. Author of one such zine, Aaron Cometbus, drew the titles and animation for the film. Cometbus is coming to Moscow to discuss the film and talk about the Californian punk scene in more detail, during his lecture at Garage.
Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk,
Dir. Corbett Redford, 155 min, USA, 2017