Synopsis

Patti Smith performs "Summer Cannibals" with her band in a cramped, disordered cellar. Shot in stark black and white, the video uses restless camera movement, rough textures, and confrontational close-ups to match the song's feverish energy. Religious imagery, including a crude depiction of Jesus and his apostles, a rosary, and a stark image of Smith's foot, gives the performance a sacramental yet unsettling atmosphere. As the song reaches its climax, Smith presents herself as both participant and offering in the video's surreal feast.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was made in 1996 to promote "Summer Cannibals," the lead single from Patti Smith's comeback album *Gone Again*.

• The entire performance was filmed in a cellar, helping create the video's deliberately rough, enclosed atmosphere.

• Its black-and-white presentation and abrasive visual style place it closer to an underground film than to a conventional polished rock video.

• Religious motifs are central to the imagery. The video includes a kitsch-like Jesus-and-apostles tableau, a discarded rosary, and a close-up of Smith's bare, dirty foot.

• The song was written by Patti Smith and Fred "Sonic" Smith. It grew from a piece Fred Smith had written for his earlier group Ascension in 1973.

• The short was later presented in film-program and museum contexts, including a 1997 International Film Festival Rotterdam screening and a 2024 Museum of Modern Art program featuring a new digital remaster.