Savage Beliefs : The Movie

 It’s pretty rare for a band to star in their own movie vehicle (The Beatles, Ramones and Kiss come to mind) and damn near impossible for a Hardcore Punk band to, but in 1984, Chicago Punk band Savage Beliefs starred in a low-budget film called, cleverly enough, Savage Beliefs-The Movie. The brain child of a local film maker and Art Institute student Charles Fink, Savage Beliefs was intended as a B-movie slasher pic focusing around the actual band called Savage Beliefs. But like a lot of low budget Indie films, the money dried up before it could be finished and released and so has been sitting around collecting dust-until now!  For you Punk/Indie scholars out there, Savage Beliefs featured future Big Black bassist Dave Riley and ex-Government Issue member Brian Gay. And in a stranger twist of before-they-were-famous, the assistant Director Of Photography on the film is none other than Academy Award-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Schindler’s List).  Augmenting the actual band members was lead actor Chris Morrison, plays Whitaker as a 20 something full time messenger, and part-time punk rocker who gets caught in a love triangle with a Psychotic drug dealer named Jake and his femme fatale girlfriend Alicia.The other band members become embroiled in Whit’s drama, and one by one, pay the ultimate price.  Also appearing in the movie are Chicago Punk legends Naked Raygun (most recently featured on Dave Grohl’s HBO series Sonic Highways), who play the opening band for Savage Beliefs at the historic West End Club, in Chicago, and various talented character actors from the Chicago acting community.  We will be screening a rough cut this never-before-seen slice of 80’s Chicago Punk life (and death!)Original Running time 88 minutes. 16mm Color - currently DV.Starring: Chris Morrison, Michael Dickson, Ellen Duncan. With: Eric Cassell, Brian Gay, Dave Riley, Wes Tabayoyong, Joan SchwenkWritten and Directed by: Charles FinkAlso screening- Earth Is Not Room Enough-12 min. HD Color-A Lo-Fi/Sci-Fi short film by Regressive Films about Sam, a young, vinyl enthusiast, who garbage picks a strange record collection and set of electronics. Through a journal found buried in the vinyl, Sam realizes they once belonged to a Physicist who has mysteriously disappeared. As Sam attempts to re-create the audio experiments in the journal, he unwittingly falls down a rabbit hole of intrigue and unexplained phenomena.After the screening, there will be a Q&A with Savage Beliefs members Brian Gay and Wes Tabayoyong followed by a musical performance by Savage Beliefs and very special guests.

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