During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Pacific Northwest witnessed a surge of idiosyncratic creativity that, for a time, banished the slack-jawed banality of mainstream music and art to the shabby bargain basement of the cultural wasteland. Countless young men and women turned their backs on the hollow blather generated in corporate boardrooms, producing their own music and art with a rebellious, energetic glee. Northwest Passage: The Birth of Portland's D.I.Y. Culture is an independent film that examines the exciting alternative music movement in Portland, Oregon from 1978 to 1983. Directed and produced by video pioneer Mike Lastra, the film is a narrative told by musicians and artists via interviews, performances on video, photographs and vintage news clips. Bands that appear in Northwest Passage: The Birth of Portland's D.I.Y. Culture include The Wipers, Poison Idea, The Rats (later to become Dead Moon), The Dead Kennedys, Smegma, The Bags, Sadonation, The Neo Boys and the Styphnoids. Includes bonus features. NTSC/Color/Stereo/Region 0. Running time: 88 mins.