Wreckers of Civilization : Marcus Werner Hed and Dan Fox on their Doc Fortnight-premiering Other, Like Me: The Oral History of COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle

Marcus Werner Hed and Dan Fox’s Other, Like Me: The Oral History of COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle, which NY-premiered February 24 as part of this year’s hybrid Doc Fortnight, certainly lives up to its billing as “a unique portrait of living for art’s sake.” The story began in the UK’s pre-punk days in Hull — a port city never to be remembered for its music scene — when a group of resident weirdos rebranded themselves as COUM Transmissions and began staging colorful happenings on the city’s grey streets. Artists and musicians came and went (and moved to London); the group and its members metamorphosized (most notably founding rebel Genesis P-Orridge); and controversy ensued (a pornographic model, co-founder Cosey Fanni Tutti, boldly re-appropriated her own image by transforming those sex photos into artwork). And then they formed noise band Throbbing Gristle, and industrial music was born. And now that this unceasing creative whirlwind has been captured onscreen through a massive trove of archival material and candid interviews with the surviving misfits (including P-Orridge who passed away in March 2020, when the doc first hit screens), Filmmaker decided to reach out to the Swedish-British doc duo to learn all about their journey back to a futuristic time. (Other, Like Me: The Oral History of COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle continues screening virtually through March 10, and IRL at MoMA on February 27.)

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.