"We must take the guns away from the cops."
Nick Zedd's work encapsulates the very definition of the 80s deep underground arthouse film. Ecstacy follows communist cinema examples set by 1970s Japanese new wavers (Koji Wakematsu, et al.) in it's use of nudity and sex to examine modes of hierarchical power, repression, and desire. Echoes of Godard's 1968 La Chinoise—with voiced-over political commentary—also connect Ecstacy with the prior decades of radical leftist filmmaking.
Much has been written about No Wave cinema. I direct interested readers to Jack Sargent's book, Deathtripping, and the documentary film, Blank City, for a quick start.
