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Susan Seidelman’s feature film debut SMITHEREENS is the meaner, younger sister of her cult classic DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN. Released 3 years prior and funded in part by the money her grandmother left her for her “future wedding,” it was shot without permits on the streets of Koch-era New York City (sorry Grandma) and went on to become the first American independent feature selected to compete at Cannes.

Susan Berman stars as Wren, a New Jersey runaway who heads to NYC seeking fame in the punk scene, and whose limited talents include pasting Xeroxed self portraits of herself around town, and pinballing back and forth between sweet (but decidedly NOT punk) Brad Rinn, and sexy (real life punk icon) Richard Hell. With a soundtrack soaked in the Feelies, ESG, and the Voidoids and screening in a newly struck 35mm print, this is the New Wave cult film your horrible teenage self should have shoplifted from the video store.

Short: “Punking Out” (Maggi Carson, Juliusz Kossakowski, and Fredric A. Shore, 1979) – 16mm – 25 min“Punking Out” courtesy of the Reserve Film and Video Collection of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. “Punking Out” has been preserved with funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.