"The Monks waren f?nf amerikanische GIs in Deutschland w?hrend des Kalten Krieges, die sich selbst als Anti-Beatles ank?ndigten. Sie sparten nicht mit Feedback, Nihilismus oder dem elektrischen Banjo. Sie hatten komische Frisuren, waren schwarz gekleidet, machten sich ?ber das Milit?r lustig und rockten h?rter als jeder ihrer Vorg?nger Mitte der Sechziger w?hrend sie quasi Industrial Music, Heavy Metal, Punk und Techno erfanden.

Der genre-?bergreifende Dokumentarfilm zeigt nicht nur das Popmusik-Ph?nomen in einem politischen, sozialen und kulturell-historischen Kontext, sondern enth?llt auch das Monks-Projekt als die erste Verbindung von Kunst und Popmusik, die Monate vor Andy Warhol und The Velvet Underground.

Die f?nf Protagonisten des Films kamen 1961 w?hrend des Kalten Krieges als Soldaten nach Deutschland und verlie?en das Land 1967 als Avantgarde-Monks. Mehr als 30 Jahre konnten sie nicht ?ber ihre seltsame Erfahrung sprechen. In diesem Film erz?hlen die f?nf Original-Bandmitglieder zum ersten Mal ?ber ihr Abenteuer. "

"Dietmar Post films as director/producer:

Bowl of Oatmeal (short, USA, 1996, 16mm, 10 min)

Cloven Hoofed (short, USA/Germany/Spain, 1998, 16mm, 12 min)

Reverend Billy (documentary, USA/Germany/Spain, 2002, digital video/16:9, 60 min)

Luc?a Palacios as producer and production manager include:

Reverend Billy & The Church of Stop Shopping, documentary by Dietmar Post.

The Nomi Song, documentary by Andrew Horn for WDR (Germany).

La Espalda del mundo, documentary by Javier Corcuera for El?as Querejeta P.C (Spain).

Cloven Hoofed, short by Dietmar Post (Germany/USA)."

they were heavy on feedback, nihilism and electrical banjo. They had strange haircuts, dressed in black, mocked the military and rocked harder than any of their mid-sixties counterparts while managing to basically invent industrial, heavy metal, punk and techno music.

The genre-overlapping documentary film not only illustrates the pop music phenomenon in its political, social and cultural-historic contexts, but also reveals the monks project as the first marriage of art and popular music and this months before Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground.

The five protagonists of the film came to cold war Germany in 1961 as soldiers and left the country in 1967 as avant-garde monks. For more than thirty years they were not able to talk about their strange experience. In the film the five original band members recount for the first time their adventure."

"Dietmar Post was born in Germany in 1962. He studied Television, Theatre & Cinema Studies and Spanish Language at the Free University of Berlin, New York University and at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). He received a Master?s degree in 1995. After living for many years in New York Post currently resides in Berlin.

Luc?a Palacios was born in Spain in 1972. She studied Cinema Studies at the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1996 she obtained a scholarship at New York University through the Spanish government. While in New York she worked as production manager for several films and as TV news reporter for Canal+Televisi?n Espa?ola and SAT. Currently she resides in Berlin (Germany)."