Made for the price of the sound super 8 film stock on which it was shot, this could be the cheapest feature film ever screened. Desperate Teenage Lovedolls is the result of combining Russ Meyers' Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and the formative punk band The Runaways with punk's DIY culture. In the vein of Suburbia – and sharing two of that film's young performers – Desperate not only turned punks into actors but made them directors as well. Dave Markey worked with star Jennifer Schwartz and a rudimentary script to improvise an epic tale of an all-girl rock n' roll juggernaut whose unmatched rise to fame is marked by a trail of death and destruction. Exploited by a seedy producer, fighting a rival band and producing the instant sensation Electric Catbox, the Lovedolls' stardom – unlike this underground tour de force – comes at quite a cost.