Movies Similar to Brass Tacks: Punk Rock

Punk the Capital: Building a Sound Movement(2019)

An in-depth exploration of a seminal moment in DC music history (circa 1976 to 1984) and the rise of harDCore. The film is made up of a mix of rare archive material, conversational interviews, and a collage editing style. Features early DC punk and hardcore bands like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Slickee Boys, The Faith and more.

Dublin Crust(2023)

A decade after punk band Crust split, the band members lives have fallen apart. Drummer Bonehead has just been released from prison and sets about reforming the band for one last show.

City of Splendour(2013)

A documentary about punk and subculture scene of Pula, Croatia from 1978 to 1991, the city that gave birth to one of the most vivid punk and alternative rock scenes in former Yugoslavia, despite having population of just over 60,000 residents.

Joan Jett and The Blackhearts: Real Wild Child - Video Anthology(2003)

The career-spanning anthology features more than 35 videos, tracing Jett's record-breaking career as the front woman of the Blackhearts. Both concert footage and classic videos are presented in chronological order on REAL WILD CHILD, with no-holds-barred commentary from Jett and longtime manager/partner Kenny Laguna, as well as rare and previously unreleased bonus material.

SLC Punk(1998)

Two former geeks become 1980s punks, then party and go to concerts while deciding what to do with their lives.

24 Hour Party People(2002)

Manchester, 1976. Tony Wilson is an ambitious but frustrated local TV news reporter looking for a way to make his mark. After witnessing a life-changing concert by a band known as the Sex Pistols, he persuades his station to televise one of their performances, and soon Manchester's punk groups are clamoring for him to manage them. Riding the wave of a musical revolution, Wilson and his friends create the legendary Factory Records label and The Hacienda club.

We Were Feared(2010)

We Were Feared chronicles the rise and fall of the Cuckoo's Nest punk rock club. Hailed as the birthplace of slam-dancing, the Nest famously shared a parking lot with a cowboy bar and the mayhem that would ensue when both clubs emptied was immortalized in the Vandals' songs “The Legend of Pat Brown” and “Urban Struggle.” Featuring interviews with the people who populated the scene, archival images of gigs, and live performances by Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, & T.S.O.L.

Mink DeVille: Live at Montreux 1982(2008)

1982 found Mink DeVille in the middle of the transition from their CBGB's New York punk origins to a more subtle, rootsier sound blending soul, R & B, Cajun and other influences. Led by Willy DeVille, whose unique style and inimitable gravelly voice always made them stand out from the crowd, Mink DeVille released their first album in 1977 and immediately had a huge hit with the track Spanish Stroll. By the time of this appearance at Montreux in 1982 they were touring in support of the fourth album Coup De Grace and the show features tracks from across their career to that point as well as a couple of unreleased gems including their cover of the Ben E. King classic Stand By Me.

The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle(1980)

A rather incoherent post-breakup Sex Pistols "documentary", told from the point of view of Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, whose (arguable) position is that the Sex Pistols in particular and punk rock in general were an elaborate scam perpetrated by him in order to make "a million pounds."

American Hardcore(2006)

Inspired by Steven Blush's book "American Hardcore: A tribal history" Paul Rachman's feature documentary debut is a chronicle of the underground hardcore punk years from 1979 to 1986. Interviews and rare live footage from artists such as Black Flag, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, SS Decontrol and the Dead Kennedys.

Bad Reputation(2018)

The life and career of rock n' roll icon Joan Jett from her early years ripping it up onstage as the founder and backbone of hard-rock legends The Runaways, to her long time collaboration with Kenny Laguna as Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, and her enduring presence in pop culture as a rock pioneer and mentor. With her inimitable singles "I Love Rock n Roll," and "Bad Reputation" Joan Jett inspired a generation of young women to rock.

One Love Manchester(2017)

Live coverage of the concert set up by Ariana Grande at Old Trafford cricket ground to benefit those affected by the May 2017 Manchester bomb attack. Performers include Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Coldplay, Katy Perry, Take That, Pharrell Williams, Niall Horan, Miley Cyrus, Usher, Robbie Williams, Little Mix and The Black Eyed Peas.

George Carlin: Doin' It Again(1990)

George Carlin brings his comedy back to New Jersey and this time talks about Offensive Language, Euphemisms, They're Only Words, Dogs, Things you never hear, see or wanna hear, Some people are stupid, Cancer, Feminists, Good Ideas, Rape, Life's moments, and organ donors.

Dither: The D.I.Y. Sound(2013)

Dither: The D.I.Y. Sound is not your conventional punk rock documentary. In this documentary we explore the ideologies created by cornerstones of the early punk community such as Ian Mackaye of Minor Threat, Fugazi and Dischord Records. But beyond that, we explore the communities and people that have adopted these ideologies and created their own version of what it means to be D.I.Y. This is not a documentary about just music, it's a documentary about the communities that surround the music and embrace it as a way of identification and brotherhood. But this documentary doesn't just ask questions about the culture, it asks questions about how it's possible to maintain a culture that is, at it's core, so opposite of the modern economic and social system.

There We Were, Now Here We Are... The Making of Oasis(2004)

A documentary made for television that looks back on the development and rapid rise of Oasis from being a band practicing nightly in the Boardwalk to one the biggest British bands of the last thirty years. Building from the formation of the band (with Liam apparently just fed up waiting for other bands to release records and decides to do something himself), the film uses contributions from key people really well to tell the story in an engaging way.

The Complete Jam(2003)

The Complete Jam serves up a staggering 49 performances, divided between 16 promotional videos (previously available on the |Video Snap VHS collection), a seven-song excerpt from a 1980 live show, and a staggering 26 more drawn from the best of the band's television performances, ranging from their U.K. debut on Marc Bolan's fondly remembered Marc through to their nine-song farewell performance on The Tube. A couple of entertaining interviews, a photo gallery, and a short (and, sadly, very poorly narrated) documentary on the band's history complete the portrait.

Go Against the Flow(2024)

Second half of the 1970s. A few teenagers from the town of Ustrzyki Dolne, led by a charismatic and undisciplined student of the local school, Siczka, decided to become punks and get into punk rock and start a band called KSU.

Outlawed: A Punk Rock Uprising in the Basque Country(2021)

What We Do Is Secret(2007)

The true-life story of Darby Crash, who became an L.A. punk icon with his band The Germs. Along with Lorna Doom, Pat Smear, and Don Bolles, Darby Crash completely transformed the L.A. punk scene, while sacrificing everyone he loved, his career, and ultimately his life.

Punk: Attitude(2005)

A documentary on the music, performers, attitude and distinctive look that made up punk rock.