I’m Nailed Right In by the A.L.E.
Joe Christ, an underground filmmaker from NYC, came through town a couple of months ago to show a glimpse of his alternative taste in cinema. Joe’s films are a smorgasboard of violence and drug induced schizophrenia with sex added as a special gravy. Some of his films are fictionalized, while others are based on real life experiences. The film Speed Freaks with Guns explores the 1980s methamphetamine scene in Dallas, Texas. Acid is Groovy - Kill the Pigs is a film inspired by the Jeffery MacDonald murder case. On this tour he was promoting his latest feature Sex Blood & Mutilation. This film shows various extremes of piercings, deviant sexual practices and ritual cuttings. Genesis P-Orridge, of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, graphically shows off his many genital piercings and performs some gory ritual cuttings. David Aaron, the former editor of Screw magazine shows his taste for masochism. Tattoo Mike Wilson shows off his tattooed body and his Coney Island freak show act. The film also showcases footage of mutilated genitals.
I wasn’t really familiar with Joe Christ’s film work except for a few articles and a small preview in a Greensboro café a few years ago. Underground NYC filmmakers like Cassandra Stark, Richard Kern, and Nick Zedd have always held a special dark spot in my heart so I was up for anything. Joe was showing his films at Garner’s little punk rock haven, The Caboose, which seemed like an appropriate place. The Caboose has recently been one of the more important clubs to the Triangle musical scene with it’s more “open minded” booking. They book bands that wouldn’t have a chance in the other clubs in town or that never play out. I didn’t expect any problems with the film’s subject matter and was hoping for more than the “previewing just enough to tease the wallet” showing I had seen before. What I experienced was a scene more repulsive than Joe or any other underground filmmaker could portray on film.
A few days before the showing, an ALE (Alcohol Law Enforcement) officer had stopped in The Caboose on business and saw posters for the Joe Christ show. He asked about the movies; inquiring what they were about. Before the person The Caboose employee described the movies to him not realizing that he was an ALE agent,. The agent, not liking what he had heard, threatened to come back during the show. The Caboose’s owner still wanted Joe Christ to put on the show but he had to censor any nudity, breasts, or sexual acts in the films. Joe said that he didn’t know if any agents actually had shown up, but it didn’t matter. ALE agents can easily censor anything we, NC residents, see in a bar through just mere threats. If the ALE agent had returned and didn’t like what he saw in the films then he could give the bar a citation, fine or even shut it down by revoking its license to sell alcohol.
Joe spent an entire day editing and censoring his films just for the Caboose show. He sat down at his home-editing deck and inserted footage over the scenes with nudity . In Sex Blood & Mutilation, this footage covered up half the movie. So, instead of the normally graphic scenes, the viewers saw the sentences,
“DUE TO PIG HASSLES, I CAN’T SHOW YOU WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING HERE”
and
“THE STATE HAS DETERMINED THAT THE NUDITY NORMALLY SHOWN HERE COULD HARM YOU IN SOME WAY” .
Even though this was a small gesture by Joe to push the buttons of the ALE agents lurking in the shadows, it still had a tremendous impact on the viewers.
As I sat there on the Caboose’s sticky floor, it made me numb thinking that I have no say in this situation. Being forced to stare at a blue screen while the sound of Joe Christ’s films filled the room was paralyzing. Even though the crowd could not see what was being broadcast, most stuck around. It was hypnotic having the censorship being forced upon us through the edited film in an environment where censorship of this type just shouldn’t exist. The government that I support with my taxes was in control even here. It’s nice to know some overpaid bureaucratic clown offended by the subject matter (a film the ALE agent never even saw) decided that a group of paying and consenting adults cannot handle watching nudity on film and drink beer. It’s kind of funny we that we are not trusted to make our own choice in entertainment, but we are then given the responsibility to give these dorks a job through election.
Samuel Mauney
Joe
Christ (l) seems like a nice enough guy. Here he is with Christian alarmist,
Bob Larson (r).