Films about subcultures

A crime-drama, about the cultural aversion of a group of punk rockers in a conservative Texas town. Their ongoing battle with a rival, more-affluent clique leads to a controversial hate crime that questions the morality of American justice.

Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza — PARIS IS BURNING brings it, celebrating the joy of movement, the force of eloquence, and the draw of community.

When household tensions and a sense of worthlessness overcome Evan, he finds escape when he clings with the orphans of a throw-away society. The runaways hold on to each other like a family until a tragedy tears them apart.

Young Alisa is fed up with her life in Moscow, and moves to St. Petersburg. Her roommates in the collective flat are two junkies, Vel and her boyfriend Valera the Dead Man. First they fight, but soon the two women form a friendship. Together they even go after the Petersburg underworld when Dead Man is abducted because he can't pay his debts.

Moro returns to Alma Ata to collect money owed to him. While waiting out an unexpected delay, he visits his former girlfriend Dina, and discovers she has become a morphine addict. He decides to help her kick the habit and to fight the local drug maphia responsible for her condition. But Moro finds a deadly opponent in "the doctor," the maphia kingpin who is exploiting Dina.

Touko Laaksonen, a decorated officer, returns home after a harrowing and heroic experience serving his country in World War II, but life in Finland during peacetime proves equally distressing. He finds peace-time Helsinki rampant with persecution of the homosexual and men around him even being pressured to marry women and have children. Touko finds refuge in his liberating art, specialising in homoerotic drawings of muscular men, free of inhibitions. His work – made famous by his signature ‘Tom of Finland’ – became the emblem of a generation of men and fanned the flames of a gay revolution.

In Monterrey, Mexico, a young street gang spends their days dancing to slowed-down cumbia and attending parties. After a mix-up with a local cartel, their leader is forced to migrate to the U.S. but quickly longs to return home.

A driver and a mechanic travel around the United States hopping from drag strip to drag strip in a 1955 Chevy Bel-Air coupe. They race for money, betting with their competitors. The pair gain a young and talkative female stowaway. Along the way they unintentionally attract a well-to-do drifter driving a new Pontiac GTO. This older man, looking for attention, antagonizes their efforts.

In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Statrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own.

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

Marco Lopez, a former Neo-Nazi and skinhead, tries to leave his violent, racist and hateful past behind him.

After being wrongfully expelled from Harvard University, American Matt Buckner flees to his sister's home in England. Once there, he is befriended by her charming and dangerous brother-in-law, Pete Dunham, and introduced to the underworld of British football hooliganism. Matt learns to stand his ground through a friendship that develops against the backdrop of this secret and often violent world. 'Green Street Hooligans' is a story of loyalty, trust and the sometimes brutal consequences of living close to the edge.

Mark Renton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out, despite the allure of the drugs and influence of friends.

In this hit Russian musical, a group of friends flaunts Soviet authority in 1950s Moscow by embracing jazz. When Communist Mels falls for Polly, a free-spirited jazz fan, he risks losing his party membership by associating with her rebellious crew.

Pumping Iron is a 1977 documentary film about the run-up to the 1975 Mr. Olympia bodybuilding competition. The film focuses on Arnold Schwarzenegger and his competitors, Lou Ferrigno and Franco Columbu. The documentary was co-directed by Robert Fiore and George Butler. It was based on the book of the same name by Charles Gaines and George Butler (Simon and Schuster, 1974).

Invisible aliens in a tiny flying saucer come to Earth looking for heroin. They land on top of a New York apartment inhabited by a drug dealer and her female, androgynous, bisexual nymphomaniac lover, a fashion model. The aliens soon find the human pheromones created in the brain during orgasm preferable to heroin, and the model's casual sex partners begin to disappear. This increasingly bizarre scenario is observed by a lonely woman in the building across the street, a German scientist who is following the aliens, and an equally androgynous, drug-addicted male model.

The film tells a story about the latest musical revolution in recent history – the early days of the rave scene and the golden age of techno culture. International political changes in the mid-80s and early 90s, including the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, in a short period of time allowed this cultural phenomenon to become a mass movement which was almost completely independent from the global corporations and which did not fight with the system but created its own system.

Leningrad, one summer in the early eighties. Smuggling LP’s by Lou Reed and David Bowie, the underground rock scene is boiling ahead of the Perestroika. Mike and his beautiful wife Natasha meet with young Viktor Tsoï. Together with friends, they will change the destiny of rock’n’roll in the Soviet Union.

Young Evelina has a law degree, but her dream is to travel to the USA and earn a living as a professional DJ. But it’s 1997 and the girl is living in post-Soviet Minsk...

Based on the 1973 rock opera album of the same name by The Who, this is the story of 60s teenager Jimmy. At work he slaves in a dead-end job. While after, he shops for tailored suits and rides his scooter as part of the London Mod scene.

My Summer as a Goth is a coming-of-age story about the sometimes painful -often entertaining- search for identity & love in adolescence. After the sudden death of her father, 16-year old, Joey Javitts is sent to stay with her eccentric grandparents while her author mother promotes her latest novel. Joey falls for the beguiling Goth boy next door, Victor, and is transformed by him and his merry band of misfits in black.

Andrei is the head of a gang of antisemitic skinheads clinging to the old communist ideals in post-Communist Moscow. When he learns that his long lost father actually is a Jewish bohemian living in Moscow, rather than an Afghanistan war hero, he traces him down in order to kill him. But the intriguing father and his "reactionary" lifstyle soon fascinates Andrei which leads to a clash with his gang.

Biography of the British painter Francis Bacon. The movie focuses on his relationship with George Dyer, his lover. Dyer was a former small time crook.

The film tells about the time in which the characters of the movie "Leto" lived. Performer of the role of "Skeptic" Alexandr Kuznetsov interviews Natalya Naumenko, Artemy Troitsky, Igor Petrovsky, Seva Novgorodtsev and Andrey Tropillo about Russian rock, the 80s, Soviet youth, the Leningrad way of life and the spirit of that time. The conversations take place in the real locations of the movie "Leto", where the characters come to tell how everything was in reality, and plunge into nostalgia and praise or, on the contrary, criticize "artistic fiction".

When a casino owning dog named Charlie is murdered by his rival Carface, he finds himself in Heaven basically by default since all dogs go to heaven. However, since he wants to get back at his killer, he cons his way back to the living with the warning that doing that damns him to Hell. Once back, he teams with his old partner, Itchy to prep his retaliation. He also stumbles on to an orphan girl who can talk to the animals, thus allowing him to get the inside info on the races to ensure his wins to finance his plans. However, all the while, he is still haunted by nightmares on what's waiting for him on the other side unless he can prove that he is worthy of Heaven again.

A boatload of beloved VeggieTales pals embark on a fun and fresh pirate adventure with their trademark humor and silly songs in The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything - A VeggieTales Movie! Larry the Cucumber, Mr. Lunt and Pa Grape find themselves on the ride of their lives when they are mysteriously whisked back to the time when pirates ruled the high seas.

1892, Saint Petersburg. Sasha, a young Russian aristocrat, has always been fascinated by her grandfather's life as an adventurer. A renowned explorer, he designed a magnificent arctic ship, but he hasn't returned from his last expedition to the North Pole. To save her family's honor, Sasha runs away. Headed towards the Great North, she follows her grandfather's trail in search of his famous ship.

Exiled artist and poet Mustafa embarks on a journey home with his housekeeper and her daughter; together the trio must evade the authorities who fear that the truth in Mustafa's words will incite rebellion.

The movie's plot is based on the true story of a group of young computer hackers from Hannover, Germany. In the late 1980s the orphaned Karl Koch invests his heritage in a flat and a home computer. At first he dials up to bulletin boards to discuss conspiracy theories inspired by his favorite novel, R.A. Wilson's "Illuminatus", but soon he and his friend David start breaking into government and military computers. Pepe, one of Karl's rather criminal acquaintances senses that there is money in computer cracking - he travels to east Berlin and tries to contact the KGB.

Jack Casey used to be a hot-shot stock market whiz kid. After a disastrous professional decision, his life in the fast lane is over. He loses his nerve and joins a speed delivery firm which relies on bicycles to avoid traffic jams of San Francisco, is attracted to a fellow bicycler, Terri, and befriends Hector, a budding entrepreneur. Can Jack regain his nerve and his self-respect, and rebuild his life on a more sound basis?

Jules, a young Parisian postman, secretly records a concert performance given by the opera singer Cynthia Hawkins, whom he idolises. The following day, Jules runs into a woman who is being pursued by armed thugs. Before she is killed, the woman slips an audio cassette into his mail bag...

Satoru Fujinuma is a struggling manga artist who has the ability to turn back time and prevent deaths. When his mother is killed he turns back time to solve the mystery, but ends up back in elementary school, just before the disappearance of his classmate Kayo.

Space Pirate Captain Harlock and his fearless crew face off against the space invaders who seek to conquer the planet Earth.

A young lion cub named Simba can't wait to be king. But his uncle craves the title for himself and will stop at nothing to get it.

High school student Mizushima receives Valentines Day chocolates from the new student, Monami. Little did she know that the chocolates contained traces of Monami's vampire blood. He gets infected from eating them and Monami confesses that she wants to live with him forever as vampires. Meanwhile, Mizushima decides that he wants to fully become a vampire with Monami's help. Keiko, Mizushima's girl friend, sees the two on the school rooftop kissing and in a state of hysteria, attempts to throw Monami off the roof but falls off herself instead. Keiko dies but her father, Kenji Furano, the mad scientist, resurrects her as Franken girl. Thus begins a deadly combat between Franken Keiko and Vampire Monami in the name of love.

A hypocritical swinging college student cat raises hell in a satiric vision of various elements on the 1960's.

The dialogue-less film follows the major life stages of a castaway on a deserted tropical island populated by turtles, crabs and birds.

It’s 1982, and Taeko is 27 years old, unmarried, and has lived her whole life in Tokyo. She decides to visit her family in the countryside, and as the train travels through the night, memories flood back of her younger years: the first immature stirrings of romance, the onset of puberty, and the frustrations of math and boys. At the station she is met by young farmer Toshio, and the encounters with him begin to reconnect her to forgotten longings. In lyrical switches between the present and the past, Taeko contemplates the arc of her life, and wonders if she has been true to the dreams of her childhood self.

This movie portrays the drug scene in Berlin in the 70s, following tape recordings of Christiane F. 14 years old Christiane lives with her mother and little sister in a typical multi-storey apartment building in Berlin. She's fascinated by the 'Sound', a new disco with most modern equipment. Although she's legally too young, she asks a friend to take her. There she meets Detlef, who's in a clique where everybody's on drugs. Step by step she gets drawn deeper into the scene.

In an effort to end family feuding, a young gypsy travels back in time to kill mammoths to ensure Hungary becomes rich by killing mammoths in order to create a massive oil reservoir. Things don't go entirely according to plan...

Three handicapped losers who form a band ask famous writer Dries to be their drummer. He joins the band and starts manipulating them.

Fox, a former circus performer, wins the lottery of DM 500,000 and can now have the life and things that he has always wanted. While he wants to climb up the social ladder, it isn't without turmoil, and being torn between his old working class roots, and the shiny new facade of middle class consciousness.

On the planet Ygam, the Draags, extremely technologically and spiritually advanced blue humanoids, consider the tiny Oms, human beings descendants of Terra's inhabitants, as ignorant animals. Those who live in slavery are treated as simple pets and used to entertain Draag children; those who live hidden in the hostile wilderness of the planet are periodically hunted and ruthlessly slaughtered as if they were vermin.

When a man wakes up in the Australian outback with no memory, he must use the few clues he has to discover his identity before his past catches up with him.