Christopher Bickel | |
|---|---|
| Citizenship | United States |
| Occupations | |
| Organization | Films Colacitta |
| Style | B-movies, Horror, Girl Gangs, Cult Films |
| Website | cuttored |
Christopher Bickel is an American underground filmmaker from West Columbia, South Carolina, where he films most of his movies. [1] [2] [3] Bickel has directed films such as Pater Noster and the Mission of Light (2024), Bad Girls (2021), and The Theta Girl (2017). [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Bickel's films are "low-budget," being financed and produced independently. [9] He has expressed frustration with distribution issues and competition with mainstream big-budget studio films. [10] [11] [12] Bickel's films are available on Blu-Ray, and on streaming services such as Night Flight Plus. [13] [14]
Bickel was named the 2020 Free Times "Best Filmmaker in Columbia." [15] His 2024 film Pater Noster and the Mission of Light was official selection at the 2024 film festivals: Another Hole in the Head Film Festival, South Carolina Underground Film Festival, and BizarroLand Film Festival. [16] Bickel's filmmaking influences include George Romero, Gregg Araki, John Waters, HG Lewis, Russ Meyer, David Lynch, Kenneth Anger, and Jack Hill. [17] He has hosted a "Lowbrow Cinema Explosion" at the Nickelodeon Theatre in Columbia. [18]
Bickel has also directed music videos for artists such as Demiser, MNRVA, and Boo Hag. [19] Prior to entering filmmaking, Bickel wrote and conducted interviews for the counterculture website Dangerous Minds and for the punk culture 'zine Maximum Rocknroll. [9] In the 1990s and early 2000s, Bickel sang in the South Carolina punk bands In/Humanity and Guyana Punch Line, and released music for a solo project called Anakrid. [20] He is an avid collector of vinyl records and has released vinyl soundtracks to certain of his films. [21] [22]