ABOUT

Writer/director Jon Moritsugu, who has been making movies since 1985, has created a miasma of protopunk deconstructions of popular genres and formats with scabrous and pointedly garish results. The New York Times describes them as “funny, anarchic, provocative and exhilarating”. Since 1989 he has collaborated with his wife of 25 years and creative partner, Amy Davis, when he directed her in his first feature, MY DEGENERATION, which played at Sundance and was hailed by Rolling Stone as “One of the top 25 greatest punk rock movies of all time.” Since then, the two have evolved from the standard and all too predictable director + muse cliche to equal and unified filmmaking partners. A string of fearless and visionary features has been birthed in their union of kunst including MOD FUCK EXPLOSION, TERMINAL USA, FAME WHORE, and SCUMROCK. 

The most obvious collaboration is PIG DEATH MACHINE (which garned them both a JACK SMITH LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD from THE CHICAGO UNDERGROUND FILM FEST in 2013), and starred Davis, was directed by Moritsugu, and was co-written and edited by both. All the films are etheric babies of the duo as they trudge against the BATTLE OF THE SEXES as conjoined creators. Decades have been spent destroying their egos, as well as dolloping ego disorders on their movie characters…most of which have been played by Davis, gleefully staining the celluloid in a bricolage of hubris/greed/pride/vanity/martyrdom and idiocy, all with campy abandon and HUMOR. These films have scorched eyeballs worldwide from MoMA to Cannes to the Guggenheim to Berlin to the Whitney. In 2012 they received a Grammy Nomination in the “Long Form” category for a music video they co-created for the band TV ON THE RADIO, but they ultimately lost to The Foo Fighters.

Moritsugu and Davis are currently in post production for their newest feature, NUMBSKULL REVOLUTION, which was shot in Marfa and Santa Fe, NM. Starring Davis as an ultra-brilliant ”SUPER EGO” narcissistic conceptual artist (AND her sleazy ”ID” twin sister), the picture lambasts the high art scene with a twisted and hilarious elan. Acting opposite her as a competitor in high art is James Duval, who played “Frank the Bunny” in DONNIE DARKO. 

Moritsugu graduated from the fabled Brown University Semiotics Department and has received awards from The Rockefeller Foundation, Creative Capital Foundation, and Tribeca Film Institute. In 2015, James Schamus (former CEO of FOCUS FEATURES) stated to THE NEW YORK TIMES, “Jon is a true cinema original. I’d rather be spit on by Jon than kissed by 95% of the directors out there.”

2013 CHICAGO UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL “Lifetime Achievement Award” for PIG DEATH MACHINE
2012 GRAMMY NOMINATION (Long Form Video) for “NO FUTURE SHOCK” by TV ON THE RADIO
2003 NEW YORK UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL “Best Feature” for SCUMROCK
2002 CHICAGO UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL “Best Feature” for SCUMROCK
1999 OSCAR CONTENDER recognition for FAME WHORE
1997 NEW YORK UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL “Best Feature” + “Festival Choice” for FAME WHORE
1997 HONOLULU UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL “Best Feature” for FAME WHORE
1997 AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL “Screenplay Semi-Finalist” for FAME WHORE
1995 NEW YORK UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL “Best Feature” for MOD FUCK EXPLOSION
1990 BIG MUDDY FILM FESTIVAL “Popular Choice” for MY DEGENERATION
1990 THE VILLAGE VOICE “Top 50 Movies of the 1980’s” for DER ELVIS
1987 BROWN UNIVERSITY “Albin Polasek Award”

2017 SITE SANTA FE Spread 6.0 Finalist
2008 TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE audience development grant
2005 CREATIVE CAPITAL FOUNDATION distribution grant for SCUMROCK
2001 CREATIVE CAPITAL FOUNDATION post-production grant for SCUMROCK
2001 CHICAGO UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL post-production grant for SCUMROCK
1998 DOCKERS/LEVI STRAUSS short film commission for CRACK
1996 ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION AWARD for FAME WHORE
1993 INDEPENDENT TELEVISION SERVICE production grant for TERMINAL, USA
1992 NATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION production grant for MOD FUCK EXPLOSION

1987 BA in SEMIOTICS THEORY and CINEMA PRODUCTION, BROWN UNIVERSITY