CREEM: America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine
Directed by Scott Crawford
2019Documentary75 minUnited States
The wild story of CREEM, the Detroit rock magazine and its band of misfit writers, from underground rag to national powerhouse to tragic collapse.
Synopsis
Ripping back the curtain on legendary rock rag CREEM Magazine's wild and disruptive newsroom; a dysfunctional band of unruly outsiders who weren’t all that different from the artists they covered.
Capturing the messy upheaval of the '70s just as rock was re-inventing itself, the film explores Creem Magazine's humble beginnings in post-riot Detroit, follows its upward trajectory from underground paper to national powerhouse, then bears witness to its imminent demise following the tragic and untimely deaths of its visionary publisher, Barry Kramer, and its most famous alum and genius clown prince, Lester Bangs, a year later. Fifty years after publishing its first issue, "America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine" remains a seditious spirit in music and culture.
The director
Scott Crawford
Scott Crawford is an American music journalist and filmmaker who founded a punk fanzine as a teenager. He directed Salad Days, about the Washington DC hardcore scene, and the CREEM documentary.
