"You don’t have to reach out more than an inch to grasp how writer Matteo Pizzolo’s [work] fits
into today’s political discourse… and there is nothing wrong with that.
It’s only fair and right that art in all its forms would strike back with unmitigated force.”
— Salon
MATTEO PIZZOLO
. writer . director . producer . publisher .
. comics . film . tv . games. animation .
. agitprop street politics .
”CALEXIT’s main comic is a high-octane war story…
spinoff EMMIE-X focuses on characters who aren’t
shooting their way through urban street warfare but
instead are peacefully resisting and inspiring their
neighbors to stand beside them against tyranny.”
-Entertainment Weekly
“Dropkicking fascism”
“Pizzolo ran a voter registration drive on the convention floor of San Diego Comic Con and debuted EMMIE-X, about a young woman fighting DHS internment camps through pirate radio.”
“Startlingly realistic”
“When Emmie’s makeshift record store gets seized by government agents who need more facilities to hold detained immigrants (not too different from real-life immigrants being detained at former Walmart stores), she pivots to pirate radio, broadcasting newly outlawed music instead of government-mandated right wing radio. In doing so, she befriends a Homeland Security troop with good taste in music — but wonders if she can convince him to actually rebel against his fascist government masters.”
“The comic is, indeed, a form of political activism”
“Each issue includes interviews with progressive candidates and community organizers.”
"It's not wish fulfillment: it's warning -- and a scarily imminent and salient warning at that.
But that's not all: it's superb."
—Cory Doctorow, BOING BOING
"Continuing the legacy of DMZ and THE INVISIBLES, this sci-fi thriller captures the true rage, injustice and emotions behind a rebellion on every panel and provides a brutal and sometimes violent social commentary on the current state of affairs.
YOUNG TERRORISTS fearlessly attacks politics in a completely savage way."
-Amy Giardiniere, CBR
“Wonderfully bizarre... GODKILLER is deftly unorthodox and wickedly delectable.”
Best Books Of The Year List
—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
“I really am at a loss for words.
The GODKILLER animated film essentially stabbed me in the gut and has left me quite speechless.
Built from the ground up, inventing as they go… it challenges cinema, both live-action and animated. It will push your limits. Watch at your own risk.”
—Multiversity
GODKILLER teaser
“Intriguing…
Mixes dark visuals, graphic violence, profanity and a speed metal soundtrack into an oddly alluring post-nuclear holocaust.” -SF Signal
community
godkiller cosplay and tattoos
RAGE
[Atari Teenage Riot feat D-Stroy]
While these days images of raging street protests flood our news and social media, back in 99 it was much more difficult to spread visuals of what was happening on the streets.
In 2000, Pizzolo appeared at the 2600 Hackers On Planet Earth conference where he contrasted the largely censored news footage of the WTO protests against uncensored, on-the-street video shot by activists. (miniDV was new at the time so activists were documenting more and more, but most video was still being shared on VHS tapes!)
Off that presentation, Atari Teenage Riot partnered with Pizzolo for a music video to help the activist-shot footage reach a wider audience.
"Like a raw blast of visceral anger, THREAT explodes off the screen eliciting comparisons to early Martin Scorsese,
Abel Ferrara and Larry Clark's nihilistic masterpiece KIDS. Pretty heady company and it's to Pizzolo's credit that when
THREAT works, it's more than worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as those films...
Undeniably compelling, THREAT grabs you by the throat and holds tight for 90 minutes." -Alternative Press
THREAT trailer [SD]
“A defiant and confrontational movie about class war and unbridled youth violence, THREAT is not exactly the type of film you might expect to earn its writer-director a multi-picture deal with Sony, but that's exactly what Pizzolo managed to accomplish along with his filmmaking partner Katie Nisa and their Kings Mob multimedia militia. With THREAT tearing it up in theaters, I decided to catch up with Pizzolo and figure out what he's so angry about.”
-Suicide Girls
"THREAT is different.
Genuinely unsettling, thrillingly chaotic, a tale of a cross-cultural riot that takes in philosophy, polemic and politics without taking a breath.
S’like you hired private dicks to follow your kids around at night and they hired Abel Ferrara to do surveillance.
Put together by an utterly untutored group of kids on 16mm cameras with discarded film stock, it’s a morally complex, beautifully acted, occasionally sickeningly violent portrayal of the underground NYC hip hop and hardcore scenes without a moment of false patronisation or sociological merit.
The story skewers you precisely because it’s left so open-ended and realistically without closure.
A genuinely independent feeling film – seemingly creating a new cinematic aesthetic from the noise that is its soundtrack and spur, and if nothing else it contains voices and thoughts (particularly about politics and 9/11) that you’re not likely to hear anywhere else.
The soundtrack’s a doozie too, pitting Alec Empire and a host of tech-terror merchants (The Tyrant / Edgey / Holocaust) against a slew of hardcore genii (Agnostic Front / Glassjaw / Killswitch Engage / Minor Threat) with frequently devastating results (the Defragmentation re-rub of Gorilla Biscuits is worth the price of admission in itself).
Hear, see, never set foot in a multiplex ever again."
-Terrorizer Magazine
THREAT: Music That Inspired The Movie
To commemorate THREAT’s wide release, a set of hardcore bands and breakcore artists created remix mashups in line with the film’s culture clash.
Listen here for: Minor Threat vs Holocaust, Glassjaw vs Enduser, Most Precious Blood vs Atari Teenage Riot, Gorilla Biscuits vs Defrag, and more.
”A beast that becomes a beauty, this musical creation carries substance, maintaining continuity with the film's concept of hope - to join diametrically opposed elements in harmony. Of the 15 mixes, some are truly wonders of electronic possibility. Enduser's retooling of Terror's ‘Overcome’ retains genuine brutality, and Killswitch Engage's ‘World Ablaze’ is put into surreal industrial disco beats by Edgey. " -Outburn Magazine
VENTURES
become the government.
black mask studios.
halo-8 films.
diy-fest.
mobstance.
kings mob.
CREDITS
Headline Images Art
Calexit (main header): Soo Lee
Rogue State: Ramon Villalobos
Emmie-X: Soo Lee
Calexit: Amancay Nahuelpan
Young Terrorists: Ben Templesmith
Godkiller: Nen Chang
Threat (movie poster): actors Keith ‘Wild Child’ Middleton, Carlos Puga; photos Jason Rose, James Dimaculangan; design Robert Anthony Jr.
Threat (album cover): Robert Anthony Jr
Assorted Art
Rogue State cover: C. Granda
Rogue State Second Printing: Jasmin Darnell
Emmie-X cover: Maria Llovet
Billionaire Killers cover: Alexis Ziritt
Godkiller: For Those I Love I Will Sacrifice art: Nen Chang & Liz Tecca
The Long Knives cover: Ludeshka
Young Terrorists cover: Amancay Nahuelpan
Godkiller hardcover: Alexis Ziritt
Photo Credits
Matteo Pizzolo & Chuck D: Michael Dubin
KCRW photo: Amy Ta
NY Times photo: Emily Berl
Godkiller shirt: Sylva Welch, photo Jonathan Weiner, design Aubrie Davis
Arm tattoo: Connor Usher (actual tattoo, photo included with permission)
Halfpipe cosplay: Samantha Lubrano, photo Justin M Brooks. (homemade, photo included with permission)
Halfpipe & Soledad cosplay: Heather Adamson (Heather Darling Artistry), Kt Sides (Kryptic Art & Cosplay), photo Ruffshots Photography. (homemade, photo included with permission)
Chest tattoo: Lee Glover (actual tattoo, photo included with permission)
NY Times photo: Emily Berl
DiY-Fest photo: Aaron Farley
Films That Kill photos: Stephen Loh
Sundance photo (Daily Telegraph): Raechel M. Running
Threat photos (Style Magazine): Jelle Wagenaar