Let Them Know Documents the West Coast Punk Rock Movement

September 21, 2009

The Capri Theatre in Montgomery, AL presents "Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and BYO Records" with Director Jeff Alulis as part of the Southern Arts Federation's Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers at the Capri Theatre on Monday, September 21, 2009 at 7:30pm . Following a screening of his documentary, "Let Them Know," Alulis will engage the audience in a discussion about the film and his work as a filmmaker.

By the time the second wave of Los Angeles punk rock began to crest in the early 1980's most historians had already closed the book. But things were just starting to get interesting. The music was getting harder and faster, politics became integral to the scene, police-on-punk violence and massive riots were de rigueur, and the concept of DIY transformed from a necessity into a battle cry. It was at this time that the Better Youth Organization was born. Founded by Canadian brothers Shawn and Mark Stern of the influential L.A. punk band Youth Brigade, the BYO was part political movement and part business venture. Even though they were only teenagers at the time, Shawn, Mark, and the BYO crew found a way to organize punks to take positive action to help sustain their scene and way of life. Among other things, they helped countless bands put on shows, they were instrumental in the creation of the landmark punk documentary "Another State of Mind," and they started BYO Records, which remains one of the oldest surviving independent punk rock labels in the world.

The film includes interviews with Ian MacKaye (Fugazi, Minor Threat, founder of Dischord Records), Fat Mike (NOFX, Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, founder of Fat Wreck Chords), Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio), Gary Tovar (founder of Goldenvoice Promotions), Brendan Mullen (founder of The Masque Club, author of "Lexicon Devil: The Fast Times and Short Life of Darby Crash and The Germs"), members of The Bouncing Souls, Swingin' Utters, 7 Seconds, and many others involved in the So Cal Punk Scene.

Touring with the film, Director Jeff Alulis graduated from USC's prestigious Graduate Screenwriting Program in 2002 and shortly thereafter formed Emo Riot Productions alongside co-producer Ryan Harlin. Jeff and Ryan co-directed and produced the award-winning 2003 documentary "Do You Remember?:15 Years of The Bouncing Souls" and have since gone on to work on other music-related film projects, including the eight-part documentary series "NOFX: Backstage Passport" which aired on Fuse TV in 2008 and is now available on DVD.

"Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and BYO Records" is Jeff and Ryan's second feature-length film collaboration.

The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is a program of the Southern Arts Federation, a not-for-profit regional arts organization making a positive difference in the arts throughout the South since 1975. Southern Arts Federation is supported by funding and programming partnerships with the National Endowment for the Arts and the state arts agencies of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Special support for Southern Circuit is provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For more information on the Southern Arts Federation and its programs visit www.southarts.org.

The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is presented in Montgomery by the Capri Community Film Society, a non-profit organization. (http://capritheatre.org)Support is provided in part through a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

Accomodations for the filmmakers are provided by the Lattice Inn.

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