Directing

Richard Kern

Born December 20, 1954 · Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, USA (age 71)

Richard Kern is a New York underground filmmaker, writer and photographer. He first came to underground prominence as part of the underground cultural explosion in the East Village of New York City in the 1980s, with erotic and experimental films featuring underground personalities of the time such as Lydia Lunch, David Wojnarowicz, Sonic Youth, Kembra Pfahler, and Henry Rollins. Like many of the …

Known For

Catholic

Catholic · 1991

Catholic is a b/w Super-8 short written, produced and directed by Richard Kern. A Catholic student has a crisis of faith.

Russian Kiss

Russian Kiss · 2014

Norwegian singer Annie and Norwegian visual artist Bjarne Melgaard’s “Russian Kiss” is their protest song and short film, directed by Richard Kern, aimed at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime and its anti-gay laws.

House Sitter

House Sitter · 2013

House Sitter is one of many new short films on the 2013 DVD Extra Shot by Kern.

Horoscope

Horoscope · 1991

Holly Adams plays an attractive but rather repressed young woman. She checks her horoscope, shambles homeward from her dull office job and promptly falls asleep in front of the TV. Two naked young men appear in her living room and begin dancing around for her pleasure.

IDn4

I am so endlessly alone. Whats my illusions, whats my odds, and illusions have to be killed, I don't have more time to destroy. Is my loneliness real and is my longing about what? Then who are this people?

American Nightmare

American Nightmare · 1991

American Nightmare

A video full of swastikas, human skulls on American flag backdrops, girls frenching on department store mannequins and burning themselves with candles, military helmets and clomping boots, dudes masturbating under crucifixes, and a bunch of crotches.

Destruction

Destruction · 1984

MovieActionHorror

The aftermath of an experience with Heroin causes a man to destroy anything within his path.

My Nightmare

My Nightmare · 1993

Director Richard Kern and model Susan McNamara engage in a chaotic fast-cut blend of fantasy and reality. A satire of some of Kern's own early work.

Filmography

Sort

Catholic

Catholic · 1991

Catholic is a b/w Super-8 short written, produced and directed by Richard Kern. A Catholic student has a crisis of faith.

Director

Russian Kiss

Russian Kiss · 2014

Norwegian singer Annie and Norwegian visual artist Bjarne Melgaard’s “Russian Kiss” is their protest song and short film, directed by Richard Kern, aimed at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime and its anti-gay laws.

Director

House Sitter

House Sitter · 2013

House Sitter is one of many new short films on the 2013 DVD Extra Shot by Kern.

Director

Horoscope

Horoscope · 1991

Holly Adams plays an attractive but rather repressed young woman. She checks her horoscope, shambles homeward from her dull office job and promptly falls asleep in front of the TV. Two naked young men appear in her living room and begin dancing around for her pleasure.

Director

IDn4

I am so endlessly alone. Whats my illusions, whats my odds, and illusions have to be killed, I don't have more time to destroy. Is my loneliness real and is my longing about what? Then who are this people?

Richard Kern

American Nightmare

American Nightmare · 1991

American Nightmare

A video full of swastikas, human skulls on American flag backdrops, girls frenching on department store mannequins and burning themselves with candles, military helmets and clomping boots, dudes masturbating under crucifixes, and a bunch of crotches.

Destruction

Destruction · 1984

MovieActionHorror

The aftermath of an experience with Heroin causes a man to destroy anything within his path.

Director

My Nightmare

My Nightmare · 1993

Director Richard Kern and model Susan McNamara engage in a chaotic fast-cut blend of fantasy and reality. A satire of some of Kern's own early work.

Director

Zombie Hunger

Zombie Hunger · 1984

Zombie Hunger is an experimental short film depicting a group of people shooting up and then vomiting.

Director

Bathtub

Bathtub · 2019

Richard Kern 2019.

Director

Cutter

A woman talks about why she scarifies herself and shows it.

Director

Divine Hammer

Divine Hammer · 1993

The alternate Richard Kern version.

Director

Nazi

Nazi is a short film by underground film-maker and photographer Richard Kern, featuring Annabelle Lee. This movie came from his Death Trip collection.

Director

Tumble

Tumble demonstrates Richard Kern’s departure from narrative filmmaking in the early nineties. He was clearly more interested now in photography, and specially in the merging of documentary and model photography.

Director

Marilyn Manson: God Is In the TV

Marilyn Manson: God Is In the TV · 1999

Marilyn Manson: God Is In the TV

MovieMusicDocumentary

God Is in the T.V. is the second video album by Marilyn Manson. It features all 13 music videos Marilyn Manson spawned between July 1994 and November 1999, as well as uncensored bonus footage from the production of "The Dope Show" music video and nearly an hour of live and backstage footage from the Rock Is Dead tour.

Director

Sonic Youth: Corporate Ghost (The Videos: 1990-2002)

Sonic Youth: Corporate Ghost (The Videos: 1990-2002) · 2004

Sonic Youth: Corporate Ghost (The Videos: 1990-2002)

A collection of music videos by Sonic Youth, spanning from 1990 to 2002.

Director

Worm Movie

Worm Movie · 1985

Experimental short film starring Lung Leg and a worm.

Cinematography

Submit to Me

Submit to Me · 1985

Cinema of Transgression pioneers and participants (Lydia Lunch, Lung Leg, Nick Zedd, etc.) perform a series of acts as they submit to director Richard Kern's camera. Originally created for DTNY acid parties; Submit to Me was eventually edited down to 10 minutes and given an accompanying score.

Director

Clean

Clean is an experimental short film by NY filmmaker Richard Kern.

Director

The Right Side of My Brain

The Right Side of My Brain · 1984

The Right Side of My Brain

Lydia Lunch and Richard Kern's first collaborative effort, The Right Side of My Brain, is a glimpse into the world of unsatiable female lust, narrated by Lydia Lunch. The film was initially dismissed and dismayed by critics such as J. Hoberman, but the criticism of The Right Side of My Brain received only pushed the two to go one step further with Fingered (1986).

Director

Submit to Me Now

Submit to Me Now · 1987

Submit to Me Now

MovieHorrorMusic

Oddballs dancing, leering at camera, guy shaving a nontraditional part of his body and man ripping his own throat out, woman stabbing herself to death.

Director

Face to Panty Ratio

Face to Panty Ratio · 2011

Face to Panty Ratio

Face to Panty Ratio is a 3 minute short film by New York based photographer and cult director Richard Kern featuring close ups of girls’ faces and panties.

Director

The Hardcore Collection

The Hardcore Collection · 2000

The Hardcore Collection

A fringe film collective of edge-dwelling New York nihilist punks and crazies whose main pathological protagonist triumvirate were voyeur smackhead Richard Kern, pouting artpunk Nick Zedd and damaged psychescream queen Lydia Lunch.

Director

F.F.P.

Controversial photographer and filmmaker Richard Kern’s ode to podophilia, aka foot fetishism.

Producer