From Film Comment: Penelope Spheeris Talks About the DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION

Penelope Spheeris and daughter Anna Fox, responsible for bringing the films back into circulation

Director Penelope Spheeris will join AFS on August 28 and 29 for screenings of her classic docs DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION parts I-III and her narrative SUBURBIA.

Here is an interview from Film Comment about the DECLINE films and how they are seeing the light of day again after years in which they were difficult to gain access to.

One of the most underrated aspects of the films is Spheeris’ ability to live and work among chaotic surroundings. About that, she says:

I was comfortable with the chaos, I think. That’s kind of my background: I came from a pretty chaotic family background, people were always like beating each other up and everything. I think what I wanted to do was just kind of organize shit, you know what I mean? Like, “Oh, this is total chaos, let me organize it all.” That was just my instinct.