Capturing the blistering intensity of their live shows, intimate moments backstage and in the studio, and interviews with members including frontmen Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, the film sheds light on an often enigmatic band whose unwavering commitment to their independent, anticorporate ideals—forgoing money and mainstream fame in favor of accessibility and activism—continues to inspire the DIY underground.

The two-hour runtime slips between footage of Fugazi performing not only at DIY-venues and rock clubs, but a White House anti-war rally, an anti-apartheid benefit, and a D.C. prison; as well as recording at Inner Ear Studio and a house in Connecticut. It also includes extensive audience portraits and candid interviews with fans and non-fans alike. Instrument emerges as an honest portrait of the band and the community that formed around them. Both Cohen and Fugazi pointedly rejected the music-video industry, and their film eschews the pyrotechnics that emblematized corporate music-dom as seen on MTV throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s.

The mix of mediums — Super 8, 16mm, video — and aesthetic flourishes such as slow shutter blurs and punchy intertitles connects Instrument to the avant-garde tradition, but the film also reflects classic performance documents such as Woodstock and Monterey Pop. Like Instrument, these are films that combine experimental verve with generous audience footage to encapsulate the shared attitude of artists and their community. If punk is about movement, as the band declares early on, then Instrument is certainly punk.

Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer

A Washington DC native and classmate of Ian MacKaye at Wilson High School, Cohen began documenting MacKaye and his bandmates in Fugazi at early practices in the Dischord House… and 13 years and a thousand or so gigs later, Instrument, shot on Super 8, 16mm, and videotape, appeared in the world. Featuring singer/guitarist Guy Piccioto shrieking his head off while dangling upside down through a basketball hoop in a college gymnasium, MacKaye’s quietly plinked performance of non-album track “I’m So Tired,” and countless other memorable moments, Instrument is an instance of perfect alignment between filmmaker and subjects.