Sun, 14 Dec 2008 12:00am

Film | There is No Authority But Yourself

I've just watched the film "There is No Authority But Yourself" about the anarcho-punk band Crass. It's an interesting mixture of interviews and archive material that tells the story of the band from the perspective of former members Penny Rimbaud, Gee Vaucher and Steve Ignorant. It's a good film.

While there are no real revelations for those who are familiar with the Crass story (see George Berger's "Story of Crass" book, or Penny's own writings), I liked the way much of the filming took place during workshops at Dial House (a naked Penny Rimbaud talking nonchalantly about compost toilets is quite amusing) and how the band members (at least the three interviewed) seem to be a lot happier with the band's legacy in their lives.

I often feel that Crass casts a shadow of exhaustion, resentment and anger over its former members and that this is often the dominant message that comes across in interviews. It was good, though, to see that these members are pretty much at ease with themselves when it comes to Crass and are now comfortable with what happened with the band. They should be, they did some great things.

You can watch the film on Google Video.

Author: Sean Clark