Talk: Debbie Harry & Amanda Kramer

Debbie Harry and Amanda Kramer are two iconoclasts: visionary artists with singular aesthetics whose careers have developed across film and music.

Harry began her musical trajectory in the late 60s and leapt to stardom in the mid-70s as the vocalist of New Wave band Blondie. She launched her solo career in 1981. As an actor she has worked on many film and television projects, with directors such as David Cronenberg, Amos Poe, John Waters and Isabel Coixet.

After years of running an underground dance label, Amanda Kramer turned to the world of film. Her music videos have premiered on Vogue, LA Record, Flaunt Magazine and Complex, Ladyworld (2018) was her debut feature, and her films Please Baby Please (2022) and Give Me Pity! (2022) had their world premieres at IFFR 2022, as part of the Focus: Amanda Kramer programme. 

In their conversation, Harry and Kramer will discuss their respective careers and the music and film industries. They will detail the changes in the underground landscape over the last fifty years. And they will dive deep into themes central to So Unreal – Kramer’s first documentary, narrated by Harry and selected for IFFR 2024 – the realm of cyberspace cinema, or the relation between film and society’s fears of technology.