Jodie Foster’s Army: the hardcore band that made Harmony Korine feel “reborn”
Despite the contentious nature of Harmony Korine‘s work, he remains one of the most successful, albeit notorious, independent filmmakers working today. While some might call the director a provocateur, Korine has never compromised his visions since he began making films in the 1990s.
After the photographer Larry Clark discovered Korine as a teenage skateboarder in New York, the pair joined forces to create Kids, a controversial yet realistic portrayal of adolescents navigating the AIDS crisis. Korine penned the screenplay while Clark took charge of direction, although it wasn’t long before the young Korine was ready to helm his own feature.
He released Gummo in 1997, which has since become a cult classic known for its distinctively bleak and unpolished aesthetic. The movie follows several characters as they navigate their economically depressed small town. There are plenty of bizarre, violent and uncomfortable scenes within the film, cementing its reputation as one of the most transgressive movies of the ’90s.
Since then, Korine has continued to focus on those who live on the margins of society, as well as highlighting the violence that permeates through everyday life, with films such as Julien Donkey-Boy and Trash Humpers.
Much of Korine’s fascination with outsiders and alternative culture can be traced back to his roots as a skater, with the skate scene particularly informing Kids. Korine once explained to Vice: “Skateboarding in the late 1980s/early 1990s in the South wasn’t something that most people aspired to do. It was much more looked down upon. We were spat at all the time, and fights were a daily occurrence. At the same time, it was fun.”
It was skating that led Korine to discover a band that changed his life, the unconventionally named Jodie Foster’s Army. Korine explained during an interview with Vogue that pro skater Bill Danforth introduced him to the band’s music, leading him to attend one of their gigs. This event led the future filmmaker on a path towards his obsession with everything subversive and corrupted.
He explained: “There was this place called Brentwood Skates in Brentwood, Tennessee, and this pro skater named Bill Danforth. He was a pro at a time when no pros were in Nashville. My friends and I would go after school and watch Bill Danforth skate. He would drop in barefoot and do inverts barefoot. He was so gnarly. One day he mentioned there was this band called JFA playing.”
Korine continued: “I was so young that I didn’t even know what hardcore music was. I somehow convinced my parents to let me go. It was a game-changer for me. It was just the craziest people moshing. I was this little tiny kid in the pit, and I remember it was like I had entered this portal into the most debased reality that I had ever witnessed.”
“I remember getting punched in the face and kicked and probably had a busted lip,” he added. “I think my dad was horrified. But I felt reborn, and at that point I was off to the races. There was no turning back.”
Indeed, since Korine began his career, he has been committed to showing the gritty reality that Hollywood often hides or manipulates with a glossy sheen, inspired by the chaos and transgression demonstrated by bands like Jodie Foster’s Army.
