Rock my religion, Dan Graham, USA, 1982-1984, 55' DCP OV EN, Subtitles ES
Ann Lee, an illiterate worker in a factory in Manchester (England), founded the Shaker religion in the middle of the eighteenth century. She saw an answer to the problems of the working class. Heterosexual marriage produced a huge number of starving children that the owners of the factories exploited with poorly paid jobs. The Bible showed that heterosexual marriage was the denatured result of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden. Originally Adam had been created bisexual and complete. God punished Man and Woman by forcing them into alienating work and the tortures of childbirth. Ann Lee believed herself to be the feminine incarnation of God, Christ being the male incarnation. She created a utopian community based on sexual self-denial, strict equality between men and women, and an economy based entirely on craftsmanship with common ownership of assets. The rock club and concert performances are like a church: sanctuaries against the world of adults. Electric instruments unleash anarchic energy for the masses. At the end of the sixties, rock groups lived as extended families in large houses in the cities, travelling to concerts in buses adapted to life in a community. At the outdoor rock festivals, the fans lived together in tents.
This video documentary is an assemblage of stories, music, text, and film that examines and reconstructs the relationship between alternative religions and rock.