Born and raised in Ireland, Vivienne Dick emigrated to the United States in the 1970s. She became an integral figure in No Wave film culture and produced a series of seminal Super8 short films. Living in New York, which was undergoing a recession and an inexpensive place to live, many of her films were staged around well-known sites such as Coney Island, the Statue of Liberty, and the World Trade Center. The films featured punk performers such as Lydia Lunch, Pat Place (of the band Bush Tetras) and Adele Bertei (of The Contortions). Film critic and author J. Hoberman has called Dick the "quintessential No Wave filmmaker."