Beth B

Working in tandem with her then-husband Scott, Beth B was among the best-known New York underground filmmakers of the late 1970s and early 80s. As a team, Scott B and Beth B turned out numerous loud, very personal 8mm shorts that combined dark, sinister images with themes of violence. The filmmakers turned out work that explored how an individual could be constrained by society. For example, in "Black Box" (1978), a man is imprisoned in a the titular object, a device of torture made in the USA and utilized in foreign countries. The short clearly works on both a metaphorical as well as literal level. Segueing to feature-length films, Scott B and Beth B made efforts like "The Offenders" (1980), a badly shot, less than stellar effort about a kidnapping, and the highly stylized 16mm "Vortex" (1983), an art-house success starring punk performer Lydia Lunch and James Russo.