May 5, 2010 / Vancouver Courier / by Michael Kissinger

When Bloodied But Unbowed premieres next week at the DOXA documentary festival, there will arguably be no one more nervous and anxious than the film's writer and director, Susanne Tabata. Not that she has reason to be. Bloodied But Unbowed is easily the most definitive and entertaining retrospective on Vancouver's punk scene in the late '70s and early '80s committed to film. But, as Tabata is keenly aware, when you're dealing with something as dear to people's booze-soaked hearts and blood-sweat-and-tear-stained memories, there's an immense sense of responsibility that goes along with telling its rough and tumble story.

"There's a huge pressure," Tabata says. "Jim Cummins, I, Braineater, the great artist and visual innovator of the punk scene, said that it's like you're dealing with a gang of pirates. And you're going to walk the plank if you get it wrong."

Mind you, it's not as if Tabata is an interloper. The 50-year-old director and producer grew up attending local punk rock gigs at the Smilin' Buddha, cut her teeth at UBC's CiTR radio, interviewed the Ramones before anyone knew who they were and frequently appeared as a guest and correspondent on the late '70s community cable show Nite Dreems with DJ  JohnTanner and JB Shayne.

Having made documentaries on female skateboarders (SkateGirl), surfers (49Degrees) and produced the Jason Priestley-directed tour film Barenaked in America, Tabata spent the past three-and-half years researching, assembling footage, wrestling with the powers that be and interviewing the last survivors of Vancouver's punk scene, which spawned the likes of D.O.A., Subhumans, The Dishrags, Young Canadians, The Pointed Sticks and The Modernettes to name but a few. While the film's eclectic cast includes usual suspects such as Joey "Shithead" Keithley, Randy Rampage, John Armstrong a.k.a. Buck Cherry and Brian "Wimpy Roy" Goble, key figuresfrom outside Vancouver such as Henry Rollins, Keith Morris (Black Flag, Circle Jerks) and Duff McKagan (Guns 'N Roses, Velvet Revolver) also chime in to pay tribute. Tabata says the latter three were eager to participate in the film, which wasn't necessarily the case with some of her local subjects.

"They were honoured to be able to give props to the people and the music and the scene because they know they deserve it," Tabata says. "Those guys are in show business. They're professional. They're very much used to cameras and interview situations and they're used to being in the limelight. Whereas if you walked away from your past and nobody's bugged you for 20 years and someone all of sudden comes knocking and says, 'Hey I really want you to talk about your life 30 years ago,' there could be some hesitation or resistance."

To that end, Tabata went to great lengths tracking down and interviewing the charismatic and notoriously self-destructive Art Bergmann and former Modernettes bassist Mary Jo Kopechne, both of whom ditched music for more sedate lives in different parts of rural Alberta.

"I cold-called Art Bergmann, and he was a little surprised to hear from me," Tabata says. "When I told him what I thought I was going to do, he said I was insane. He wasn't really welcoming to the idea at first. Mary Jo Kopechne told me to f--k off for a year and a half."

Both Bergmann and Kopechne eventually relented and provided some of the film's most moving and thoughtful insights, not to mention marksmanship as evidenced in a scene where Kopechne, rifle in hand, uses a bail of hay for target practice.

"The characters are really the best part [of the movie] and that makes for good entertainment," says Tabata, who adds she was first inspired to make the film after attending an exhibition of Bev Davies' photos that chronicled Vancouver's early underground music scene.

"I took my camera [to the exhibit's opening] and I followed these people around and I watched the footage afterwards and I thought about the photos and the characters and how it would be a fabulous character-driven story. Because it is a comedy, in a way. I think that's lost in the aspect of punk. Vancouver was funny. How were we different than the other scenes? We were funny."

As for Vancouver's place in the annals of punk rock history, Tabata says people often fail to recognize the substantial influence the former West Coast backwater wielded. "Vancouver certainly owes its influences to what was going on in New York and London, let's not kid ourselves, but it created its own music, it created its own style and some of that has been very influential to musicians across the country and North America."

She adds, "This scene was precedent setting for the genre. It's an important piece of Vancouver cultural history, and because of the people involved and the lyrics, the language, the attitude and the lifestyle, maybe for those reasons there's really never been any recognition of that. But certainly the waves have been felt."

In fact, if Tabata's recent experiences are any indication, Vancouver's old punk scene continues to lack the recognition it deserves.

Although the Knowledge Network has agreed to air her film this fall, a number of national broadcasters and distributors turned their noses up at the subject matter citing lack of relevance and importance. While making the film, Tabata and a member of her film crew were detained at the border for three hours and sent home after trying to travel to Seattle to interview former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra. Even her two teenage sons are less than enthused with their mom's punk rock pursuits, favouring classical music and what Tabata can only describe as "that trance stuff you dance to all night."

"They've had this film all around them and have had to watch me go through all this stuff," Tabata says dryly. "So I think my kids think this [movie] is really really lame."

Bloodied But Unbowed screens May 13, 8 p.m at Granville 7 Theatre. Advanced tickets are recommended. DOXA runs May 7 to 16. For info, go to www.doxafestival.ca.

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it