Irish Film Institute -International Film Directory – Film Listing

Shellshock Rock

    • Director

      John T. Davis

    • Credits

      Producer: John T. Davis

  • Category

    Documentary
    Music

Exploring Northern Ireland’s 1970s punk scene, Shellshock Rock begins with teenagers explaining how punks’ non-conformist attitude offers, in the context of the Troubles, an anti-sectarian identity for those without a mainstream political agenda. Inviting both punks and public to speak openly to the camera, Shellshock Rock shows Northern Irish punks turning their anti-authoritarian, devil-may-care attitudes towards making musical spaces, such as Terri Hooley’s ‘Good Vibrations’ record store, free of sectarianism. Director John T. Davis features a host of bands including ‘The Undertones’, ‘Protex’, ‘Rudi’, and ‘The Outcasts’, revealing a youth revelling in music rather than engaging with The Troubles. Open and honest, Shellshock Rock is Davis’s first feature in a magnificent career, and establishes his trademark detached, observational style in revealing the decency underlying these punk’s shock tactics.

48 minutes, Ireland/United Kingdom, 1979, Colour


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