Visual anthropology

Heavy Metal Parking Lot

On the evening of May 31, 1986, a pair of aspiring documentary filmmakers took their video equipment to the Capital Center arena outside Washington, DC, and filmed teenagers arriving for a concert by the British heavy metal thudmasters Judas Priest. Jeff Krulik and John Heyn scooped up a pure slab of teenage wasteland by simply asking dumb questions ("Does anybody here do air guitar") and recording increasingly sauced teens wheeled around in their orange cars and got "ready to rawk!" Like Jane Goodall peeking through the leaves at the chimps, the filmmakers captured an amazing anthropological slice of life, complete with bad hair, bad teeth, bare chests and semi-articulate babbling. ěHeavy Metal Parking Lot,î is a short work, only 15
minutes long, but itís an ingenious masterpiece.
––JD

Heavy Metal Parking Lot
1986, 15 min
Directed by Jeff Krulik and John Heyn
$15 VHS
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