City Grrrl - CSS feat. Ssion

What this video is

Released in November 2011, 'City Grrrl' arrived during a fertile moment for Brazilian indie acts breaking internationally. CSS, signed to Cooperative Music, had built a transatlantic cult following bridging São Paulo punk energy with European and US electro-indie taste. The video, shot in NYC and featuring queer artist Cody Critcheloe of SSION, planted the track explicitly in the downtown NYC underground art and…

Why it matters

A key document of early-2010s electro-punk crossover between the Brazilian indie scene and the US queer underground. The video's theatrical maximalism and fast editing placed CSS at the intersection of Riot Grrrl legacy aesthetics and the emerging queer pop visual language that Cody Critcheloe's…

The director

Philip Harder (b. 1965) is an American music video and commercial director represented by Bob Industries, Santa Monica. He directed at A Band Apart Commercials and Music Videos (Quentin Tarantino's company) and operated Harder/Fuller Films (1985–2005). His…