In person: Penelope Spheeris.

For her first feature-length effort, Penelope Spheeris chronicles the burgeoning punk music scene bursting out of small Los Angeles venues at the dawn of the 1980s. Interviews with and concert footage of emerging groups including Black Flag, Germs, Circle Jerks, X, and Fear, then barely known outside of local zines and rabid fans, helped bring broader visibility to bands now considered household names of the genre. Always aware of Varda but never crossing paths with her, Spheeris’s instincts to embed herself within this hyperlocal scene are reminiscent of Varda’s fascination with SoCal hippies and Bay Area Black Panthers.