Scott B and Beth B facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Scott B
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United States
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| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Scott Billingsley |
| Occupation | Film director, producer, screenwriter |
| Known for | No Wave, Colab |
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Beth B
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| Born | April 14, 1955 New York City, New York, United States
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| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Film director, producer, screenwriter |
| Known for | No Wave |
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 underground film makers of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
They went on to form an independent film production company called B Movies (a pun on B movies), which made the feature film Vortex on 16-mm film, starring Lydia Lunch with James Russo, Bill Rice, Haoui Montaug, Richard Prince, Brent Collins, and Ann Magnuson, among others. Beth B is the daughter of painter Ida Applebroog, who has collaborated on two of her films.
Contents
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 typical of postmodernism. Beth studied art at the School of Visual Arts and Scott was an exhibiting sculptor. They married and became associated with Colab (Collaborative Projects) and worked out of New York City's East Village area in conjunction with performance artists and noise musicians. 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 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.
Post-Collaboration work history
- In 1987, Scott B and Joseph Nechvatal collaborated on an art performance at Hallwalls based on the poetry of St. John of the Cross, Flaubert's Temptation of St. Anthony and works of Jean Genet and Georges Bataille 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 Call Her Applebroog.
Scott B and Beth B filmography
- G-Man (1978)
- Black Box (1978)
- Letters to Dad (1979)
- The Offenders (1980)
- The Trap Door (1981)
- Vortex (1981)
Beth B selected solo filmography
- 1987: Salvation!
- 1989: Belladonna (short) (actor, co-director with Ida Applebroog)
- 1991: American Nightmare (short)
- 1991: Thanatopsis (short)
- 1991: Stigmata (short)
- 1992: Amnesia (short)
- 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)
- 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 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.
