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Ian MacKaye

Ian MacKaye

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Ian Thomas Garner MacKaye (born April 16, 1962) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, musician, label owner, and producer. Active since 1979, MacKaye is best known for being the frontman of the influential hardcore punk band Minor Threat, the post-hardcore bands Embrace and Fugazi, as well as The Evens.

He is a co-founder and owner of Dischord Records, a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label.

A key figure in the development of hardcore punk and an enthusiastic promoter of an independent-minded, do it yourself punk ethic, MacKaye also works as a producer, and has produced releases by Q and Not U, John Frusciante, 7 Seconds, Nation of Ulysses, Bikini Kill, Rites of Spring, Dag Nasty, and Rollins Band. Along with his seminal band Minor Threat, he is credited with coining the term "straight edge" to describe an ideology that eschews drug and alcohol abuse, though MacKaye has stated many times that he did not intend to turn it into a movement.

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Movies Starring Ian MacKaye (46)

Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt (2025)

Follows the story of the groundbreaking Texas-based art-punk band founded by frontman Gibby Haynes and guitarist Paul Leary. ...

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Something Better Change (2024)

These days, there's a lot of talk about outsiders in politics, but very few people can claim outsider status like Joe Keithley, punk legend turned a dedicated environmentalist and city councilor. Something Better Change follows Keithley's absolutely fascin ...

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Cover Your Ears (2023)

When does art become obscenity? ...

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We Are Fugazi from Washington, D.C. (2023)

To commemorate the 20 years that have passed since DC-based post-hardcore band Fugazi's last live appearance (November 4, 2002, at the Forum in London), Joe Gross, Joseph Pattisall and Jeff Krulik presented a screening of crowd-sourced, fan-recorded live s ...

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Punk Rock Vegan Movie (2023)

The ongoing relationship between the worlds of punk rock and animal rights and how the music became a breeding ground for vegan activism. ...

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What Drives Us (2021)

The stories of some of the biggest artists in music, recalling the romance and adventure, as well as the idiocy and chaos, of their time on the road. While the world has changed, the custom has not changed. There is no other way to know whether you can mak ...

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Dope, Hookers and Pavement (2020)

"Dope, Hookers and Pavement" is a lively and unfiltered account of the early days of the Detroit hardcore punk scene, circa 1981-82, in the notorious Cass Corridor, arguably one of the worst neighbourhoods in the city at the time. Featuring over 70 in-dep ...

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I Really Get Into It: The Underage Architects of Sioux Falls Punk (2020)

Largely ignored and left to their own devices, a group of unassuming teenagers in late 80s and early 90s Sioux Falls, South Dakota created their own culture, community, and economy. And when they moved out into the world at large, they brought what they le ...

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Punk the Capital: Building a Sound Movement (2019)

An in-depth exploration of a seminal moment in DC music history (circa 1976 to 1984) and the rise of harDCore. The film is made up of a mix of rare archive material, conversational interviews, and a collage editing style. Features early DC punk and hardcor ...

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The Tony Alva Story (2019)

62-years-old Alva, the oldest professional, skateboarder in the world, is considered by many to be the godfather of modern day skateboarding. Alva's brand of aggression and bravado in the 70's set the stage for the way skateboarding would be forever define ...

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Bad Reputation (2018)

The life and career of rock n' roll icon Joan Jett from her early years ripping it up onstage as the founder and backbone of hard-rock legends The Runaways, to her long time collaboration with Kenny Laguna as Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, and her enduring p ...

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Records Collecting Dust II (2018)

Records Collecting Dust II focuses on the East Coast cities of Boston, New York and Washington DC, and includes in depth interviews with twenty eight highly influential people from the 1980's hardcore punk rock music scene. Talking about the music, the ban ...

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Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax! Records (2018)

The true story of punks, queers, & criminals on a ride with two men who accidentally changed music along the way. ...

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You Can Color Outside the Lines... The Big Boys (2018)

YOU CAN COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES, THE BIG BOYS tells the true story of the beloved funk/punk band from Austin, Texas. Go beyond Austin's city limits and hear from some of music & skateboarding's greats about how the original "skate punk" band's message of D ...

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Parallel Planes (2017)

'Parallel Planes' is a documentary film portraying 12 American avant-garde & punk-rock musicians. It is a journey between genres, an essay on free thinking and an intimate look at how 12 critical players relate to the potential of music. ...

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The Outhouse The Film 1985-1997 (2017)

In the mid-1980s outside this college town, home of the Kansas Jayhawks, punk rock history was being made in the middle of a cornfield. Where the pavement turned to gravel, in a small, primitive cinder block building, bands like Fugazi, the Melvins, Rollin ...

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L7: Pretend We're Dead (2017)

A real time journey witnessing the rise, fall, and ultimate redemption of the fierce feminist pioneers of American grunge punk: L7. ...

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Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk (2017)

Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk spans over 30 years of the California Bay Area's punk music history with a central focus on the emergence of the inspiring 924 Gilman Street collective. This diverse group of artists, writers, organizers and music ...

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Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape (2016)

Cassette inventor Lou Ottens digs through his past to figure out why the audiotape won't die. Rock veterans join a legion of young bands releasing music on tape to push Lou along on his journey to remember. ...

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What Doesn’t Kill Me: The Life and Music of Vic Chesnutt (2016)

A documentary about the singer/songwriter Vic Chesnutt ...

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Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-90) (2015)

"Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-90)" examines the early DIY punk scene in the Nation's Capital. It was a decade when seminal bands like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Government Issue, Scream, Void, Faith, Rites of Spring, Marginal Man, Fu ...

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The Dicks from Texas (2014)

A punk band from Texas whose music and persona was extreme and political and the supporters who've followed and loved them for over 35 years. ...

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Positive Force: More Than a Witness - 30 Years of Punk Politics in Action (2014)

Punk activist collective Positive Force emerged in 1985, rising from the ashes of Revolution Summer. This feature-length film by Robin Bell skillfully mixes rare archival footage (including electrifying live performances from Fugazi, Bikini Kill, Nation of ...

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Riot on the Dance Floor (2014)

Through an oral history format of in-depth interviews and archival footage, RIOT ON THE DANCE FLOOR bring to life the gritty story of City Gardens, one of New Jersey's most infamous clubs and its larger than life promoter, Randy Now. Featuring the stark an ...

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Breadcrumb Trail (2014)

Breadcrumb Trail focuses on Slint's seminal album, Spiderland, and the Louisville music scene from which the band originated. ...

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Dither: The D.I.Y. Sound (2013)

Dither: The D.I.Y. Sound is not your conventional punk rock documentary. In this documentary we explore the ideologies created by cornerstones of the early punk community such as Ian Mackaye of Minor Threat, Fugazi and Dischord Records. But beyond that, we ...

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Bad Brains: A Band in DC (2012)

Bad Brains are one of the most important and influential American bands still working today. They melded punk and reggae into an innovative style that has yet to be copied. Their impact and influence can be heard in groups like Beastie Boys, No Doubt, Nirv ...

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We Who Wait: The Adverts & TV Smith (2012)

A documentary about the life and career of UK singer-songwriter and Adverts frontman, TV Smith. ...

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Bones Brigade: An Autobiography (2012)

When six teenage boys came together as a skateboarding team in the 1980s, they reinvented not only their chosen sport but themselves too – as they evolved from insecure outsiders to the most influential athletes in the field. ...

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Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind (2011)

Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind visually documents the explosion of Grunge, the Seattle Sound, within the context of the underground punk subculture that was developing throughout the U.S. in the late 1970s and 1980s. This decade-and- ...

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Henry Rollins 50 (2011)

"The DVD is a live performance of me at the National Geographic Theater in Washington DC on February 13th, 2011, when I turned fifty. Ian MacKaye introduces me and I take it from there. It was a good night in a good theater with a fantastic audience. One o ...

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I Need That Record! (2008)

Guerilla filmmaker Brendan Toller unleashes I NEED THAT RECORD! THE DEATH (OR POSSIBLE SURVIVAL) OF THE INDEPENDENT RECORD STORE, "an elegy for a vanishing subculture...a lively, bittersweet film that examines - with caustic humor, brutal candor, and, ulti ...

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Punk's Not Dead (2007)

On the edge of the 30th anniversary of punk rock, Punk's Not Dead takes you into the sweaty underground clubs, backyard parties, recording studios, shopping malls and stadiums where punk rock music and culture continue to thrive. ...

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924 Gilman Street (2007)

Starting with its inception in 1986, the all-ages nonprofit punk venue at 924 Gilman St. in Berkeley, Calif., was a mainstay of a thriving music scene. In this punk-tastic documentary, filmmaker Jack Curran takes a loving look at the historic club. Chronic ...

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American Hardcore (2006)

Inspired by Steven Blush's book "American Hardcore: A tribal history" Paul Rachman's feature documentary debut is a chronicle of the underground hardcore punk years from 1979 to 1986. Interviews and rare live footage from artists such as Black Flag, Bad Br ...

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Don't Need You - The Herstory of Riot Grrrl (2005)

A documentary film that tells the story of the origins of Riot Grrrl in the American independent music scene of the 1990s, and how this feminist movement evolved into a revolutionary underground network of education and self-awareness through music, writin ...

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We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen (2005)

A feature-length documentary chronicling early '80s punk rock band the Minutemen, from their beginnings in San Pedro, California, to their demise after the death of singer D. Boon in 1985. ...

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Drive: My Life in Skateboarding (2003)

Join Mike Vallely as he traverses the country on an epic road trip, and presents for you his in-depth philosophies on skating, past, present and future. Still taking time out from the sport to teach youngsters new tips and tricks, Mike is one of the hottes ...

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Minor Threat - Live: DC Space-Buff Hall-930 Club (2003)

Minor Threat played one of its last shows at Washington DC's 930 Club in June of 1983; they would only play once more in DC. Two years later, the tapes from the 930 show were edited together and Dischord Records released them as the Minor Threat Live VHS v ...

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Quest for Sleep (2003)

An hour-long documentary filmed by the band, Superchunk, on its 2001 tour of Japan, Europe and the US ...

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D.I.Y. or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist (2002)

This documentary features interviews with Ian MacKaye (Fugazi), J Mascis (Dinosaur jr. ...

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Fugazi: Live in Hamburg 1999 (1999)

Fugazi perfoming at the Fabrik in Hamburg, Germany, on September 18 1999. ...

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Instrument (1999)

The band Fugazi is documented over a period of more than ten years (1987-1998) through performance footage and interviews with the band and their fans. Director Jem Cohen's relationship with band member Ian MacKaye extends back to the 1970s when the two m ...

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The Obsessed: The Documentary (1994)

Documentary on doom metal band The Obsessed. Featuring members of: White Zombie, Fugazi, Pantera, Henry Rollins, L7, The Melvins and more. ...

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Another State of Mind (1984)

Another State of Mind is a documentary film made in the summer of 1982 chronicling the adventure (and misadventure) of two punk bands – Social Distortion and Youth Brigade – as they embark on their first international tour. Along the way they meet up w ...

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Flipside Video Fanzine Number Two (1983)

White Flag : Flipside, Not Alright, Communication Breakdown G.B.H. : Gimme Fire, Wild Thing, I Am The Hunted 7 Seconds : This Is My Life, out of Touch, Skins brains guts Tesco Vee : worshiping /s - 7 seconds with a cat and a guessing game with: SSD ...

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Movies Made By Ian MacKaye (4)

Chain (2004)

In Chain, actual malls, theme parks, hotels and corporate centers worldwide are joined into a monolithic superlandscape that shapes and circumscribes the lives of two women. One is a businesswoman researching the international theme park industry for her c ...

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Instrument (1999)

The band Fugazi is documented over a period of more than ten years (1987-1998) through performance footage and interviews with the band and their fans. Director Jem Cohen's relationship with band member Ian MacKaye extends back to the 1970s when the two m ...

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Black Hole Radio (1992)

Black Hole Radio is an installation that consists of taped confessions of callers of the New York City Phone Confession Line and video images. The Phone Confession Line is based on anonymous callers ringing to confess on things they had done or thought lik ...

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Glueman (1989)

Collaboration with Fugazi ...

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