Jack Sargeant

British writer and lecturer specializing in cult/underground and independent film, true crime, radical subcultures and other fringe topics (b. 12 March 1968); lives and works in Sydney, Australia. Jack Sargeant authored several critically-acclaimed books, most notably Deathtripping: The Cinema of Transgression (1995) about Richard Kern, Nick Zedd and other New York underground filmmakers associated with an eponymous movement, Naked Lens: Beat Cinema (97) and Against Control (2014), a collection of essays on William S. Burroughs. He also contributed to numerous magazines and has been active as a film programmer, curator, lecturer and photographer. Jack Sargeant was a vocalist of a short-lived UK grunge/garage punk band Nitro Puppy in the late 1980s to early 90s; he worked with various underground musicians and performers, including Monochrom art group in Vienna, Austria. Since 2008, Sargeant has been a Program Director for the Revelation Perth International Film Festival. In 1995, Jack Sargeant presented his first book, Deathtripping: The Cinema of Transgression, originally published by Creation Books and reissued by Soft Skull Press in 2007. It examined New York City's Lower East Side post-punk underground film movement "Cinema of Transgression," which emerged in the mid-1980s around the manifesto written by Nick Zedd. In 1997, Sargeant's second book, Naked Lens: Beat Cinema, focused on late 1950s movies that inspired and affected the "Beat generation." He covered Pull My Daisy short film by Robert Frank (3), narrated by Jack Kerouac and starring Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso, independent drama Shadows (1959), directed by John Cassavetes and Ron Rice's cult underground classic, The Flower Thief (1960). The book features essays and research on Harry Smith and Jack Smith, Jonas Mekas, Peter Whitehead (3) and many William Burroughs collaborators, such as Antony Balch, Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville. Jack Sargeant was a Film Editor for Sleazenation Magazine (2001–03) and contributed to numerous periodicals and independent publications over the years, including Bizarre (2), Wire Magazine and Headpress. He wrote liner notes for Kirby Dick's DVD released by the British Film Institute and boxsets by Throbbing Gristle and Jeff Keen. Sargeant is an occasional guest on ABC Radio National's "MovieTime" show and has appeared in numerous documentaries.