This year’s programming for The Montreal World Film Festival includes the World Premiere of Vancouver-based Iranian-born Canadian filmmaker Eileen Yaghoobian’s first, full-length documentary film—Died Young Stayed Pretty. It’s the first feature documentary to take a candid look at the renaissance of North America’s underground indie-rock poster movement.
In 2001 this little known industry experienced a creative comeback spurred on by the launch of Gigposters.com, a Web portal that catalogs rock posters from around the world. Picking up where punk left off, Died Young Stayed Pretty reveals a new breed of counter-culture artists that set out to destroy the mainstream through controversial and intensely visceral design work. Under the guise of advertising for rocks shows, these unheralded masters of the silkscreen and Xerox machine carry on public discourse that ranges from hot button political issues to lewd inside jokes. Stealing from the golden era of Americana, they pervert classic pop culture references and slap them in the face of polite society while safely treading under the radar, picking up pieces of America’s disposable culture and turning them into beautiful obscenities.
Yaghoobian travels across the United States and Canada to offer a look into the world of some of the giants of this modern subculture including Art Chantry, Brian Chippendale, the Ames Brothers, Print Mafia and Rob Jones who have worked on posters for groups like Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Radiohead, White Stripes, The Melvins, Ween, Marylin Manson, Sonic Youth, Pearl Jam, Queens of Stone Age, Bob Dylan, Marianne Faithfull, The Shins, and the list goes on.
The posters announcing the event were illustrated by Tanx Mathilde (cat) and Ron Liberti (face).
In 2001 this little known industry experienced a creative comeback spurred on by the launch of Gigposters.com, a Web portal that catalogs rock posters from around the world. Picking up where punk left off, Died Young Stayed Pretty reveals a new breed of counter-culture artists that set out to destroy the mainstream through controversial and intensely visceral design work. Under the guise of advertising for rocks shows, these unheralded masters of the silkscreen and Xerox machine carry on public discourse that ranges from hot button political issues to lewd inside jokes. Stealing from the golden era of Americana, they pervert classic pop culture references and slap them in the face of polite society while safely treading under the radar, picking up pieces of America’s disposable culture and turning them into beautiful obscenities.
Yaghoobian travels across the United States and Canada to offer a look into the world of some of the giants of this modern subculture including Art Chantry, Brian Chippendale, the Ames Brothers, Print Mafia and Rob Jones who have worked on posters for groups like Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Radiohead, White Stripes, The Melvins, Ween, Marylin Manson, Sonic Youth, Pearl Jam, Queens of Stone Age, Bob Dylan, Marianne Faithfull, The Shins, and the list goes on.
The posters announcing the event were illustrated by Tanx Mathilde (cat) and Ron Liberti (face).
