Penelope Spheeris directs movies that make her audiences laugh, cry and smash things.

Known for her realism in creating films about the burgeoning punk rock scene of the late 70s, Spheeris explains that her work with the new wave era, and counterculture of the ensuing decades, represents her obsession.

"I became obsessed making the movie, The Decline" Spheeris explained. "Critiquing the lifestyle, the totally new look and outrageous attitudes of this generation became my passion."

In 1979, Spheeris came to a crossroads in her career. Following the release of Real Life by Paramount, Spheeris got an offer to direct Private Benjamin.

"It was at that point, however, that I made the decision not to go mainstream," she confessed. Spheeris directed instead a film that made a name for this unusual director who pursued the underground realism of the counterculture of the nuclear age.

The Painter's Story wove a tale about a painter who had suffered a heart attack while painting the house of some punk rockers. The body went unnoticed in the back yard for several days. When it was discovered, the group frolicked on the lawn taking photos and clowning around, taking group shots with the deceased man. Said the lead character, it didn't bother her a bit because she hated house painters.

"I have no negative for this film. It was destroyed. But with the technology available today, I have found a way to reproduce the negative," Spheeris explained. "I feel it is a piece that needs to be preserved because it makes such a profound statement about a particular time and era."

While storytelling in the new millennium for Spheeris was a means of self expression, often focusing on violence and the dark, negative side of the new counterculture, Spheeris claims she is glad that she followed her passion, despite the fact that the road she was on seemed to be rough and convoluted.

"I directed another movie that featured an L.A. punk rock band called FEAR. It was really hard to get the picture distributed because the theater got destroyed when we tried to screen the film."

Next she penned a script about more real life people called Suburbia, for which she was criticized.

"People asked me what was wrong with me. Why was I glorifying this movement? Yes, they were violent. But I could relate to this new generation because of my own background."

Spheeris lost her own father at age seven, when he was shot and killed at a carnival in Alabama. He had been defending a young black boy who worked for the family.

The Boys Next Door, about a serial killer on the loose in L.A., and The Decline Part II, about the heavy metal rock era, came next. Spheeris had six films under her belt, all of which she described

"I was almost ready to take a job in a mental asylum for the criminally insane when I got a call from Paramount to direct an outrageous comedy entitled Wayne's World. The only reason I had gotten the job was because I kept going back and doing what I was passionate about."

Following Wayne's World, Spheeris was offered many "stupid ridiculous comedies". She pursued with two more successes - The Little Rascals and The Beverly Hillbillies. Both were fun, interesting and rewarding to create, said Spheeris, but her true passion still vibrates to a different drum.

"It's fun doing these comedies, but they really weren't the stories I thought I'd be telling."

As the new millennium unfolds, Spheeris will be there to document it as a counter culture storyteller sans parallel.