Movies: Penelope Spheeris

Albert Brooks presents a mockumentary in which he presents several shocking news stories. Saturday Night Live, Season 1 Episode 1...

An entertaining combination of heavy-metal rockers and female mud wrestlers hosted by Jessica Hahn....

Albert Brooks goes to a research institute to find out why people don't like him and how he can change that. Saturday Night Live, Season 1 Episode 9...

Documents the making of BLOOD DOLLS, interviewing members of the cast and crew....

Super mid-season replacements to failed shows in a network's super season. Saturday Night Live, Season 1 Episode 4...

A truly major work, I Don’t Know observes the relationship between a lesbian and a transgender person who prefers to be identified somewhere in between male and female, in an expression of personal ambiguity suggested by the film’s title. This nonfic...

A short documentary accompanying the first EP released by Lifers Group, a rap crew that grew out of the Lifers Group Juvenile Awareness Program — a youth crime prevention program founded in East Jersey State Prison in 1976 and made famous by the docu...

An unfinished archival short, in which the titular substance plays a key role in determining an outmoded man’s role in a changing society. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013....

An undercover cop cruises the streets of Hollywood looking for girls to pimp out....

Documentery from 1991 where The 2 Live Crew, Chuck D (Public Enemy), Too Short, Ice-T, Geto Boys, H.W.A. drop real talk on different topics....

Synthesis is director Penelope Spheeris' first film, made in 8mm Kodachrome while she was a student at UCLA. In a seemingly near-future control room devoid of people, various readouts and calculations suggest that humankind is not altogether compati...

Albert Brooks introduces himself to the audience through showing them his home movies from childhood & attempts and fails at doing candid-camera style pranks. Saturday Night Live, Season 1 Episode 2...

UCLA Student Film, Preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. A man and his wife suffer under the monotony of everyday life with work at an insurance company and unhappy marriage....

N.Y.H.C. is the first feature-length documentary to explore the New York Hardcore music scene. Drawings its roots from punk rock, hardcore evolved into a dedicated, self-contained movement, unconcerned with success in the mainstream. The documentary ...

Picking up the story first presented in I Don’t Know (1970), Hats Off to Hollywood (1972) brazenly and brilliantly mixes documentary reality with fully staged recreations/reimaginings of episodes in the lives of Jennifer and Dana, a loving, bickering...

An early short film by Penelope Spheeris about a boy enjoying the age-old pleasures of making a wish on a dandelion. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016....

One-time carny, bartender, and married 10 times, director Penelope Spheeris’ mother was an uncommon woman. In this sweet, funny, and moving video portrait, Spheeris gives us a vivid glimpse into the richness of her mother’s life and character. 35mm...

A video portrait of 2 Live Crew as they fought to release their album "Banned in the USA" during the censorship crisis of the late 80s and early 90s that ultimately resulted in the "PARENTAL ADVISORY EXPLICIT CONTENT" sticker. This 49-minute docume...