The Crimson Coyote podcast welcomes Musician, Filmmaker, and Artist, G.B. Jones to Episode #8!
G.B. Jones has acquired international acclaim for her super-8 films, zines, and proto-Riot Grrrl band, Fifth Column. Active since the early 1980s, her works are milestones in independent film, publishing, and art rock (and primary sources for what later became known as “Queercore”). G.B has always been a compelling visual artist best known for her all-female reprises of Tom of Finland’s drawings, as well as her collages. She lives and works in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
G.B.’s analogue movies utilize guerrilla film tactics and embrace a no-budget credo she refers to as “The Aesthetics of Poverty,” which is as much about formal concerns as it is about the socio-political.
She is one of the core members of the multi-disciplinary post-punk band Fifth Column, formed in 1981 by a group of women from Toronto, who collaborated for almost 12 years. These women kickstarted the DIY art making generation and inspired the following generations all over the world. Their commitment to working outside a capitalist structure made it impossible for them to claim their due as musicians and artists, despite having garnered worldwide notoriety for their work.
G.B. also collaborated with controversial artist and filmmaker Bruce LaBruce, who helped create the hugely impactful J.D’s queer punk zine. J.D’s initially stood for juvenile delinquents, but “also encompassed such youth cult icons as James Dean and J. D. Salinger.
I learned about G.B. and her band from the documentary She Said Boom: The Story of Fifth Column.
I’d like to thank Vtape, Canada’s leading artist-run, not-for-profit distributor of video art, for giving me access to the She Said Boom documentary for the purposes of this interview, as well as to G.B.’s films. Featuring more than 1,000 artists and over 5,000 titles, Vtape’s diverse collection includes works from the early 1970’s to the present.
