SUNY Purchase
SUNY Purchase was an unusual American environment. The college was isolated from the rest of town, socially, economically and culturally. There was widespread and easy availability of drugs, most notably LSD and heroin. The campus security were New York State Police yet they rarely intervened unless there was a perceived risk of injury or death. The housing system was structured so that students could upgrade from a dormitory-like environment to a more communal environment called The Old by invitation from those already living in The Old, making for a somewhat anarchistic society. I made friends who seemed to understand me in ways that had been extremely rare in my life thus far, fell in love with one of them, then lost my mind when she chose my best friend at the time over me.
I was part of the Film Conservatory, a competitive program that only admitted 20 people per year and trained students in expressing themselves through the medium of filmmaking with no instruction regarding commercial success. I advanced in good academic standing, including receiving a full-tuition scholarship for my documentary Billie Joe, meanwhile had severe behavioral problems, including breaking windows and biting a cop. I was kicked out twice and the second time, my return was contingent upon complying with psychiatric treatment. Since my experience thus far with psychiatric treatment had been nonconsentual and had involved human rights violations, I was not willing to comply and never returned.
This page has two sections: films I made as part of my training within the film conservatory, and videos I made with friends when having fun and fucking around.
art films
The terrible thing
a found footage exercise featuring fucking blow-up dolls from Greg Brill's film Attack of the Telekinetic Pussy Monsters, for which he was kicked out of the film conservatory on an academic basis
how joe quinn feels about several things
my freshman film at SUNY Purchase, and first time creating something privately without disclosing anything until the time of the screening
billie joe
My step-sister Billy-Joe had asked me for help with writing an autobiography about her experiences as a victim of child-abuse and the shortcomings of the foster care system, so we agreed to turn her notes into voiceover for a film, and made this together.
silly videos
Piss
pouring liquid into a bowl of piss that Dina Kelberman and Dan Deacon and I had buried in the woods for a month and then excavated
The first rated r show
The band Rated R started as a polka band called The Majorcans, the name being inspired by the Luis Buñuel film L'Age d'Ore, with Dan Deacon on tuba, Keith Abrams on drums, Marcel Alexander on clarinet, and me on accordion, while we were all students at SUNY Purchase.
One day, Keith arrived at band practice in my dorm sweet on acid unbenownst to the rest of us and started playing insanely fast beats and we all started freaking out making intense violent music and trashing the place. We decided to instead realize a vision Dan had: a "hardcare band" with the corny name Rated R that has an incongruously terrifying act. Marcel, being more peaceul and melodiuos than the rest of us, ceased to be involved. We dropped the accordion and tuba for a guitar that was incorrectly stringed and not tuned, and resolved to never practice but only play improvizational violent music.
That day, we made flyers to do a show in the laundry room at SUNY Purchase and got a bunch of people to go. The idea was that Dan and I would switch off between singing and playing guitar, but we soon figured out that Dan's bizarre guitar playing and my vocal intensity was preferred. That show was shut down by campus security but nothing all that crazy happened; it just wasn't a music venue.
Rated R got booked on various cheesy punk and ska shows using Dan's connections from his high school band Channel 59, and would shock the crowd with its violent performance, usually getting shut down within 5 to 10 minutes, sometimes with the cops being called. This escalated into shows where I blacked out with rage, sometimes attacking people, in one case resulting in someone getting hit in the head with a piece of furniture and going to the hospital with a concussion. My violent tendencies spilled over beyond the band as I started getting arrested and involuntarily institutionalized for psychosis, at which point Dan and Keith told me that I was the only one with the merit to be called Rated R.
In hindsight, I'm torn between whether my friends were helping me work out problems I had or were exploiting my mental problems. I remember one time, Dan and Keith visited me in the mental hospital and I'd made a shirt that said "I'm so crazy, I'm in a fucking mental hospital", which I do think is funny but it's also referencing a reality with which the others had no experience. I've since fallen out with both of them and feel like it was more of a joke to them and that I have a responsibility to understand and appropriately channel legitimately evil forces with which I have a relationship whether I like it or not.
None of the captured footage of Rated R shows how violent we really were. The first show was taped, and the other shows taped are more fun; the ones where the shit really hit the fan weren't recorded.
One day, Keith arrived at band practice in my dorm sweet on acid unbenownst to the rest of us and started playing insanely fast beats and we all started freaking out making intense violent music and trashing the place. We decided to instead realize a vision Dan had: a "hardcare band" with the corny name Rated R that has an incongruously terrifying act. Marcel, being more peaceul and melodiuos than the rest of us, ceased to be involved. We dropped the accordion and tuba for a guitar that was incorrectly stringed and not tuned, and resolved to never practice but only play improvizational violent music.
That day, we made flyers to do a show in the laundry room at SUNY Purchase and got a bunch of people to go. The idea was that Dan and I would switch off between singing and playing guitar, but we soon figured out that Dan's bizarre guitar playing and my vocal intensity was preferred. That show was shut down by campus security but nothing all that crazy happened; it just wasn't a music venue.
Rated R got booked on various cheesy punk and ska shows using Dan's connections from his high school band Channel 59, and would shock the crowd with its violent performance, usually getting shut down within 5 to 10 minutes, sometimes with the cops being called. This escalated into shows where I blacked out with rage, sometimes attacking people, in one case resulting in someone getting hit in the head with a piece of furniture and going to the hospital with a concussion. My violent tendencies spilled over beyond the band as I started getting arrested and involuntarily institutionalized for psychosis, at which point Dan and Keith told me that I was the only one with the merit to be called Rated R.
In hindsight, I'm torn between whether my friends were helping me work out problems I had or were exploiting my mental problems. I remember one time, Dan and Keith visited me in the mental hospital and I'd made a shirt that said "I'm so crazy, I'm in a fucking mental hospital", which I do think is funny but it's also referencing a reality with which the others had no experience. I've since fallen out with both of them and feel like it was more of a joke to them and that I have a responsibility to understand and appropriately channel legitimately evil forces with which I have a relationship whether I like it or not.
None of the captured footage of Rated R shows how violent we really were. The first show was taped, and the other shows taped are more fun; the ones where the shit really hit the fan weren't recorded.
come on what the fuck
A police officer with a monocle and large mustache is outraged by various situations.
just like you
A man appears to have been anally raped and left bleeding in a bathtub