Numbskull Revolution, taking nine years to complete, witnessed the end of the 29-year marriage and creative partnership of Jon Moritsugu and Amy Davis. This grand finale is their most epic and fully-realized motion picture. Ostensibly a riff on the absurdity of art, warfare of people, material control/secular terror, addictions of every genre, and self-actualization thru internal Jungian conflict, the movie – at its most base level – is a full-on, mega-entertaining cinematic odyssey tinged with ludicrous sci-fi, raw poignancy, and utter brutalism.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Amy Davis and James Duval (“Frank the Bunny” from Donnie Darko) play a pair of rival conceptual artists battling for fame and funding in the near-future dystopia of Shitville, Earth. As one ascends the heights of neoliberal capitalist success, the other seeks inspiration and solace in the euphoric waves of a new cyber drug called Skullfuck.
-UCLA Film & Television Archive/Hammer Museum
James Duval, Amy Davis, Max Sanders, Jessie Deluxe, Nathan Hollis, Ashley Crandall, Katrina Vollbracht, Devin Horne, Alyssa Taylor Wendt, Michael Musto
DIRECTED BY
Jon Moritsugu
WRITTEN BY Jon Moritsugu & Amy Davis
PRODUCED BY Jon Moritsugu, Jacques Paisner
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Pamalita Paloma Alioto, Matthew Orefice
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Anne Misawa
PRODUCTION DESIGNER Jennifer Gentile
SCENIC SCULPTURE BACKDROPS Tracey Snelling
EDITORIAL Apathy Productions
SOUND DESIGN Treble Mountain Cinema Sound Design
COLOR GRADING Heavenly Movie Co
MUSIC COMPOSED BY Robert Jason
MUSIC BY Plack Blague, Crime, Carlo Anthony, Sex Headaches, Meri St. Mary, Nunu, Low On High
NUMBSKULL REVOLUTION shot for 15 days on RAW 4K and miniDV in New Mexico and Marfa, TX in 2017. The 95-minute motion picture was completed in early 2026 after being abandoned for years and almost lost forever.
Brutally heartfelt
-AUSTIN CHRONICLE
Numbskull Revolution is uncannily contemporary. The film emerges as a satire of the art world and an erratic portrait of today’s culture that is unable to distinguish artistic transcendence from self-parody, intoxicated by its own collapse. Moritsugu transforms institutional critique into a deranged feedback loop, one where every artistic attempt at sincerity is immediately commodified, aestheticized, and sold back as spectacle.
-Connor Arakaki, IN REVIEW
A middle finger to the Marfa set and, by its very existence, proof that one of American independent cinema’s most uncompromising voices hasn’t lost its edge.
-OREGON ARTS WATCH
With raucous, three-chord cinematic bangers such as My Degeneration (1989), Terminal USA (1993) and Mod Fuck Explosion (1994), the Godfather of Punk Cinema, filmmaker Jon Moritsugu, defined the trashy, rough-hewn DIY aesthetic of 1990s underground filmmaking. The Archive is thrilled to welcome Moritsugu back to the Billy Wilder Theater for the world theatrical premiere of Numbskull Revolution, his first feature in over a decade, created with longtime collaborator and ex-wife, Amy Davis. She and James Duval play a pair of rival conceptual artists battling for fame and funding in the near-future dystopia of Shitville, Earth. As one ascends the heights of neoliberal capitalist success, the other seeks inspiration and solace in the euphoric waves of a new cyber drug called Skullfuck. Ingenious production design and savvy location shooting evoke the urban sprawl and rural industrial collapse against which Mortisugu frames this scathing satire of art world pretension.
-Paul Malcolm, SENIOR PUBLIC PROGRAMMER
UCLA FILM & TELEVISION ARCHIVE/HAMMER MUSEUM
Clinton Street Theater, Portland, OR 2/10/26
Braindead, Los Angeles 2/21/26 (w/ MY DEGENERATION)+
4-Star Theater, SF 2/27/26*
Alamo Drafthouse, Chicago 3/11/26
Alamo Drafthouse, Dallas 3/11/26
Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh, NC 3/11/26
Northwest Film Forum, Seattle 3/11-12/26
Facets, Chicago 3/13/26 (w/ MY DEGENERATION & SHORTS)+
Roxy Theater, NYC 3/13/26*
Spectacle Theater, Brooklyn 3/13-14/26 (both dates SOLD OUT)*
Texas Theater/Spacy, Dallas 3/17/26
PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia 3/19/26
Stray Cat Film Center, Kansas City, MO 3/28/26#
Arkadin Cinema, St Louis 3/28/26
Dreamland, Sacramento 4/2/26
Honolulu Museum of Art 4/17/26*
Space 538, Portland, ME 4/20/26#
Vidiots, Los Angeles 4/24-26/26
Dave Barber Cinematheque, Winnepeg, Canada 4/24-30/26+
Static Vision, Brunswick, Australia 5/23/26+
Jean Cocteau Cinema, Santa Fe, NM 5/24/26*
Guild Cinema, Albuquerque, NM 5/26-28/26 (w/ MOD FUCK EXPLOSION)*
Esquire Theatre/Outer Cinema, Cincinnati 5/27/26
Hyperreal Film Club, Austin 7/17/26 (w/ World Premiere/Demise of WAKE WITH ME, BABY)+
Eyesore Cinema, Toronto (Official Canada Apology Party) 8/22/26#
Rhizome, Washington D.C. 8/26/26#
The Supermarket, Atlanta 8/27/26 (w/ SHORTS)
“Anarchy in the Rockies” Mobile Cinema (moving van), Telluride, CO 9/6/26
Skin & Bone Theater, Durham, NC 9/24/26 (w/ MOD FUCK EXPLOSION)#
*MORITSUGU IN-PERSON APPEARANCE
#MORITSUGU ZOOM PRESENCE
+MORITSUGU PRE-TAPED VIDEO INTRO
