GOTH CRUISE

Directed By Jeanie Finlay



Premieres on IFC FREE (VOD): November 27, 2008 at Midnight.


Grab your eyeliner, dust off your black leather trousers and prepare for IFC’s riotous black celebration.



IFC FREE is giving music lovers everywhere an alternative way of celebrating Thanksgiving with fun loving documentary GOTH CRUISE, which follows 150 British and American Goths as they sail around the Caribbean for five days on the recent 4th Annual Goth Cruise. The week long jaunt includes a masquerade ball, a fashion show, a charity art-auction, moonlight swims, ‘Club Goth at sea’ events and formal dining. More traditional cruise pursuits include shuffleboard and a shore visit to the tropical port of Bermuda.



GOTH CRUISE takes a dip into one of the only lasting subcultures coming out of the 1980’s. Treating viewers to the spectacles of the Whitby Goth Festival in the UK (the birthplace of Goth), the film also introduces them to the people behind the white makeup and black eyeliner, exploring the reasons and beliefs for their unabashed stance against the mainstream.



GOTH CRUISE investigates this unlikely marriage, starting in the UK at the original home of Goth, the glorious Whitby Goth Weekend Festival. It meets a gaggle of British Goths (some cruise veterans, some virgins) in their home environment, then follows them to the U.S. to meet their American counterparts. From there these two groups embark on their Caribbean tour.

However, there isn’t only tension between the 150 Goths and 2, 500 non-Goths (“Norms”) onboard this luxury cruise ship of the damned. As one Goth Cruiser says: “Cruises attract two particular types of people: the morbid, and the morbidly obese.”



Just how do you reconcile sweeping sadness, morbid fascination and the beauty of enduring pain while sipping a Pina Colada in the Caribbean? Is hell really other people, or is it just sharing a boat with Hawaiian shirt clad senior citizens? Goth Cruise answers these questions and more, carried along by a strong Goth/Calypso soundtrack, proving that with enough rum and factor 50, even Satan’s chosen ones won't spontaneously combust in the sun.



Featuring: Musicians Wayne Hussey (The Mission/ Sisters of Mercy), Voltaire, and Andi Sex Gang with a soundtrack featuring Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, The Fields of the Nephilim, Rome Burns and more.



GOTH CRUISE- DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

When I was 17 years old I threw out my pink, bought a black fringed skirt, crimped my dyed hair, bought Bauhaus’ back catalogue and gave my heart to Robert Smith (The Cure).The pop charts didn’t offer solace for my troubled adolescent heart in the same way that Andrew Eldridge of The Sisters of Mercy and Morrissey could. When he sang - “I wear black on the outside because black is how I feel on the inside” - it was like he had written it just for me.



I was a GOTH.



Growing up in the North East of England within spitting distance of Whitby, the home of Dracula, there were pretty much two choices of tribe available to me: Goth or not.



I enjoyed the easy access rebellion, the opportunity it gave me to revel in the darker side of life and the kinship I felt with my newfound brothers and sisters in black. It enabled me to assert my independence from my parents and toughened me up. I felt the dual pleasures of reveling in the attention my outrageous outfits elicited and resenting the hassle I received from people that didn’t understand my life or choice of outfit.

After two years of being a card-carrying member of the Goth community I started to tire of black, black, black and more black. Art College beckoned and I felt that there were different ways to express my individuality than wearing the cookie cutter uniform of a dark rebel. Gradually the black in my wardrobe was replaced by more and more color and less than six months later Goth was merely a phase I had gone through.



Over 15 years later I attended the wedding of an old school friend. At school she was the archetypal Siouxsie Sioux Goth with giant crimped hair and heavily kohled eyes that parents despised and I loved. Now in her early 40’s, when she walked down the aisle we were met with the proof of what happens if you never grow out of Goth. She was a vision in black, channeling Mortiticia Adams from her floor length gown to her black veil. She was so exotic that I couldn’t help but feel like a ‘mundane’ and admire her commitment and staying power.



Seeing this face from my past who really seemed to embody “Goth till I die” made me want to find other Goths who had also stayed the distance. Within a few clicks I had found thousands of them. Goth is as alive and well today as it was in the eighties when Bela Lugosi’s Dead was first released.



I wanted to know:



What is the enduring allure of Goth that people all over the world find so appealing?

Why do some people commit to Goth for life?

How do grown up Goths earn a living, raise families and have fun?



Just what the hell happens on a Goth Cruise?

Jeanie Finlay



Jeanie Finlay (DIRECTOR)

Director Jeanie Finlay is an artist and documentary-maker whose critically acclaimed film ‘Teenland’ (BBC4) profiled another British subculture – teenagers and their bedrooms. Her previous work includes award winning interactive documentary ‘Home-Maker’ and ‘Love Takes’, an international festival hit that was acquired by The Documentary Channel, Canada.



Goth Cruisers

Heath Woodson, Lobster McFall, Mike and Amanda Gamsby, Ian Sturrock,

Bridie Przibram and Kyle Sturrock, Sean T Lewis, Angel and Bob Westphal, Steph Dayo, Kenneth Ray Lloyd Junior, Heather Browning, Laura Bienz, Chrishelle Ferraro.



Featuring

The Wicked Lady, Andi Sex Gang, Wayne Hussey, Rome Burns, Christine Emery, Paul Davidson and the Great Desiree, Voltaire, Melora Creager, Jimmy Webb , Ashbet, Kylie and Kelsie Lewis, The family of Michael and Amanda Gamsby.



Directed by Jeanie Finlay, Produced by Natasha Dack and Nikki Parrott, Executive Produced for IFC by Christine Lubrano, Debbie DeMontreux Evan Shapiro, Edited by Phil Reynolds with Original Music written and performed by Fyfe Ewing and Steve Nolan.



About IFC

Operating under the mantra "always uncut," IFC (The Independent Film Channel) uncovers and champions alternative content and makes it available to audiences across multiple platforms: on-air, online and On Demand. In pursuit of what's new, next and relevant, IFC presents clever, offbeat original series like "The Whitest Kids U' Know" and "Z Rock" alongside thought-provoking original documentaries such as At the Death House Door and This Film Is Not Yet Rated. The network also offers exclusive web series, shorts, animation, and a comprehensive independent film library of award-winning titles and cult classics. IFC broadens the audience for independent culture through its exclusive live coverage of notable film and music events like the Independent Spirit Awards and South by Southwest. The network's on demand offering, IFC Free, gives audiences the opportunity to watch premieres of all of IFC's original series before they air on the linear network. IFC Media Lab offers financing, professional development and distribution opportunities for aspiring film makers. IFC is a subsidiary of Rainbow Media Holdings LLC.