Blaine Dunkley - Director of Photography
Scab Vendor is a feature documentary about Jonathan Shaw, a legend of the tattoo world who reinvented himself as an underground novelist. Built from his personal archive — photographs, audio interviews with his famous parents, bandleader Artie Shaw and actress Doris Dowling, footage of him tattooing celebrities like Johnny Depp, and his motorcycle travels — the film follows his outlaw life, his addiction, and his eventual redemption through art and writing.
I shot most of the film's interviews across New York and New Jersey, along with Jonathan's book readings at The Slipper Room on the Lower East Side, on my RED Scarlet-W.
"Jonathan Shaw is the great nightmare anti-hero of the new age." — Iggy Pop
"Author, artist, connoisseur, madman, thug, pirate, villain, Buddha, sage, Satan, gypsy and most solid of brothers." — Johnny Depp
World Premiere — Warsaw International Film Festival 2022
Distributed by Dark Star Pictures
Featuring Jonathan Shaw, Johnny Depp, Iggy Pop & Jim Jarmusch
Directed By: Lucas de Barros & Mariana Thome
Written By: Jonathan Shaw
Producers: Enrique Aular, Lucas de Barros, Christian Jurgensen & Mariana Thome
Executive Producers: Sebastian Arrechedera & Juan Bernardo González
Cinematographers: Blaine Dunkley & Miguel Lindenberg
Editor: Grace Zahrah
Press: MSP Film Society