On June 13, 1978, the punk bands the Cramps and the Mutants played a free show for psychiatric patients at the Napa State Hospital in California. San Francisco collective Target Video recorded the Cramps’ storied performance on Sony Portapak video, the first technology of its kind made available to the public. We Were There To Be There provides the back story behind the recording and the show, by giving the people, the politics, and the cultural production—visual artists shifting towards performance, installation, and land art—of the 1970s center stage.  ER

Filmmaker Q&A available

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