Punk Cinema: The Concrete and the Chaos of L.A. on the Big Screen

From Suburbia and The Decline of Western Civilization to Repo Man and beyond, this lecture explores how punk films transformed LA into a landscape of rebellion, exposing the hidden city lurking beneath Hollywood’s mythmaking. Part film history, part urban history, and part mixtape of cinematic chaos, Dr. Trafton will ask what punk cinema can still teach us about alienation, authenticity, and imagining another Los Angeles.