The Dog Eat Dog Movie

Directed & Produced by: Vincas Sruoginis

Stage:
- Production
Locations:
- New York, United States,
- Czechia,
- Austria,
- Germany,
- Hungary,
- Poland
Updated: October 13, 2026
Project Type:
- Feature
Project Style:
- Biographical
Theme Subject:
- Art and Artists,
- Biographical / Portrait

Logline

From a dirty New Jersey basement to playing in front of 200,000 fans, back to obscurity, 30 years later, four best friends are still trying to keep the spark alive through love, loss, addiction, dreams, and betrayal.

Clips

First teaser for the upcoming Dog Eat Dog Movie
The story of how in 1995 Dog Eat Dog played the legendary Dynamo 95 where John literally crowd surfed 120,000 fans - on an actual surfboard.
Part documentary, part tour film, the Dog Eat Dog Movie dives deep into the experience of keeping a band going through thick and thin for 3 decades.

Synopsis

In 1990, four best friends from Northern New Jersey (John, Dave, Sean and Dan) set up in Dave's mother's basement with no plan beyond drinking beer and playing music. All four had come out of Mucky Pup, the legendary New Jersey underground band, and they were worn down by years of touring and being broke. Dog Eat Dog was supposed to be the antidote: a band just for fun.

It didn't stay that way for long. Almost overnight they became one of the hottest acts in the New York

...

It didn't stay that way for long. Almost overnight they became one of the hottest acts in the New York hardcore scene which got them a deal with Howie Abrams of Roadrunner Records. Their collision of hardcore, metal and hip-hop arrived years before rap-rock became a genre, and it exploded across Europe. "No Fronts" cracked the UK top ten, MTV Europe named them Breakthrough Artists of the Year, and at Dynamo Open Air they played to at least 120,000 people.

But it wasn’t all fun anymore. Dan, with his first child on the way, felt he had no choice but to quit just as the band was taking off. He left behind songs he had helped write that became their biggest hits. Years later they would learn that their manager had been stealing from them, and that the deal with Roadrunner left them with no royalties. On the road, the party that never ended, consumed Sean. His drinking forced him out of the band and eventually led to his early passing.

Through it all, Dog Eat Dog kept playing. In Europe they drew hundreds of thousands of fans. In America they were forgotten.

In 2023 they released Free Radicals, their first album in a decade and headed back to Europe for a tour to find out whether it was still worth it be on the road. The film follows the tour as a fault line is exposed between the two remaining founder, John and Dave. John has done nearly everything a musician dreams of, except build financial security or the family he gave up for the road, and he's ready to put Dog Eat Dog to rest. Dave is nowhere near done.

The Dog Eat Dog Movie is more than a film about a band you've probably never heard of. Combining verité footage from the road, candid sit-down interviews and three decades of archival material, it asks what makes an artist keep going, and what that drive costs. Dan chose family and watched his songs become famous without him. Sean chose the party and didn't survive it. John chose the road and is now reflecting on what it took from him.

Everyone has dreamed of being a rock star. Far fewer have asked the harder question that comes at 40 or 50: would you trade a comfortable life for that dream, or trade the dream for a comfortable life? At a time when so many artists are asking whether it's still worth it, Dog Eat Dog's story turns that question on all of us. Were our choices worth the sacrifice? And when do we give up the dream and grow up?

As the tour winds down, one question hangs over everything: is this the last ride, or can a friendship built in a basement survive the end of the band?

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Team

Vincas Sruoginis

Director & Producer

Team

Vincas Sruoginis

Director & Producer

Vincas is a New York based award-winning documentary filmmaker, commercial director, editor and mentor. His first feature doc won best picture at the Kino Pavasaris and was nominated for four Silver Crane's (Lithuanian Oscars) and maintains a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Vincas has work aired on PBS, worked for clients ranging from Google to Coca Cola, and is a voting member of the European Film Academy.

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Norman Magnuson

Cinematographer

Team

Norman Magnuson

Cinematographer

Norman's award winning work has been seen at major film festivals around the world and garnered tens of millions of views on social and broadcast platforms. His commercial client list includes Google, Nike, Adidas, Apple, Ikea, Tommy Hilfiger & Uber, among many other notable brands. Norman's broadcast clients include Hulu, PBS, CBS Sports and Nickelodeon, and his work has been featured at Tribeca Film Festival, the NYTV Festival, FilmQuest and SeriesFest, among other major film festivals. Honing his craft in the early days of branded content as a staff creator for Google, Norman developed a tasteful style which is the coalescence of a naturalistic documentary approach combined with more stylistic commercial driven visuals. He is always looking for new opportunities of creativity and collaboration. Feel free to give him a shout!

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Background

...

Why now
Everyone has dreamed of being a rock star. Far fewer of us have faced the question that arrives at 40 or 50: would you give up a comfortable life to chase the dream, or give up the dream for a comfortable life? That question has never been more urgent for working musicians. A January 2025 Ditto Music survey of 1,500 independent artists found that 84% of UK acts can't afford to tour, and 62% had turned down tour offers for financial reasons alone. An entire generation of musicians who came up in the '90s is now deciding, in real time, whether it's still worth it. But the question isn't only for artists. Anyone who has weighed a passion against security, or wondered whether their choices were worth the sacrifice, will see themselves in this film.

The story behind the story
Dog Eat Dog are one of rock's great untold stories. They were among the first bands to fuse hardcore, metal and hip-hop, years before rap-rock dominated the charts. Their debut, All Boro Kings, sold close to 1 million copies worldwide. The Jam Master Jay remix of "No Fronts" reached No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart, and in 1995 MTV Europe named them Breakthrough Artists of the Year over Alanis Morissette, Weezer and Portishead. They recorded with RZA and Ronnie James Dio, shared stages with Metallica and Rage Against the Machine, and toured America with No Doubt, 311 and Goldfinger. Yet while those bands became household names at home, Dog Eat Dog faded into obscurity. That gap between European stardom and American obscurity, along with exploitative contracts, a stolen fortune and the death of a founding member, is what makes this a story that hasn't been told.

Who it's for
The film has several natural audiences that overlap. There are the Gen X rock, metal and hip-hop fans who lived through this era. There is the large and loyal European fan base that still fills festival fields for the band. And there is the broader audience for character-driven music documentaries about friendship, ambition and aging, the audience that turned Anvil! The Story of Anvil into a cult phenomenon. The film also reaches a younger audience through DJ Plash, who grew up in Poland as a devoted Dog Eat Dog fan and went on to become the first DJ to perform at an Olympic breaking battle (Paris 2024). The film's first teaser was built around his remix of "No Fronts" created and performed for the film.

Unprecedented access
I've been close friends with the band since before Dog Eat Dog existed, I was at their very first show, and I've had a front-row seat to the entire 30-year journey. My friendship with the band, insider knowledge and trust shows on screen. Every key figure has been interviewed and featured, including Dan, the founding member who left before the band broke. His new band, Kings Never Die, opened the 2023 tour, and he joined Dog Eat Dog onstage every night to play the songs he wrote for their first record.

Production status
The film is 90% shot. Principal photography of the 2023 Free Radicals album release and European tour is complete, along with in-depth interviews and a deep archive that includes the band's landmark 1995 performance at Dynamo Open Air. Peer interviews have begun with Billy Graziadei of Biohazard, and a handful more with celebrity friends and fans will follow, plus a final story turn to be filmed / revealed next summer. Editing is already underway between shoots. The film has been largely self-financed to this point, with minimal debt, so new funding goes directly into finishing it: the remaining shoots and all of editing and post-production. Music licensing discussions are already underway with Warner Music Group, which controls the Roadrunner catalog.

Why me
I'm a documentary director and editor whose feature The Invisible Front was favorably reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, earned four Lithuanian Academy Award nominations and holds 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. I've spent two decades cutting national campaigns and documentaries, and I taught documentary editing at CUNY's Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. I know how to shape hundreds of hours of verité and archival material into a film that moves people.

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Participants

Vincas Sruoginis

Director / Editor / Producer

Participant

Vincas Sruoginis

Director / Editor / Producer

My journey into film started with a broken ankle. I couldn’t skate with my friends that summer, so I picked up a camera and filmed them instead. That turned into making skateboard and snowboard videos, which led to a job at the legendary Go Robot, editing spots for IBM, Sprite, and AMEX, to name a few.
I was then lured away to make a feature documentary in Europe, which solidified my love of the genre. That doc won awards and caught the eye of a producer at Google, who hired me not only to edit but also to direct and produce work at Studio G.
From there, I have travelled the world producing, editing, and/or directing all sorts of work ranging from TVCs to Doc’s to Social Content for all manner of clients, from TikTok (ByteDance) to a small NGO in Madagascar.
The one constant is my love of shaping a story that engages the audience on a human level, and I can make that happen whether it’s with a large crew or just me and a cell phone.

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Norm Magnuson

Cinematographer

Participant

Norm Magnuson

Cinematographer

Norman Magnuson is a New York based Cinematographer, with over 15 years of experience crafting his skills on hundreds of projects in the commercial, documentary and narrative spaces. His award winning work has been screened at major film festivals around the world, including The Tribeca Film Festival, Fantastic Fest, The Florida Film Festival, Dances with Films, FilmQuestand SeriesFest, and garnered hundreds of millions of views on social and broadcast platforms.

His commercial client list includes Google, Nike, Apple, Ikea, Samsung&Uber, among many other notable brands, working through top agencies such as Ogilvy, Digitas, Havas andVML. Norman’s broadcast clients include Netflix, Hulu, PBS, Paramount, CBS, NBCand Nickelodeon.

Honing his craft in the early days of branded content as a staff creator for Google, Norman developed a tasteful style which is the coalescence of a naturalistic documentary approach combined with more stylistic commercial driven visuals.

He is always looking for new opportunities for creativity and collaboration.

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Denise Sante

Executive Producer

Participant

Denise Sante

Executive Producer

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Our Ask

We are seeking financing to bring the film over the finish line with a handful of outstanding shoots, edit, color and mix. With the teams long history of working in the post industry we have already negotiated reduced rate color and mix. We have been self-financed so we are only carrying minimal debt. We are also open to bringing on another producer as we all know filmmaking is a team sport and we can use as many excellent players as we can find.

We are seeking:

Funding,
Co-Production Partners,
International Co-Production,
Sales Agent,
Press Agent,
Festival Premiere,
Streaming Partner,
Broadcast Partner,
Newsroom Partner,
Publication Partner,
In Kind Partnerships

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The Dog Eat Dog Movie

Logline

Clips

Team

Vincas Sruoginis

Vincas Sruoginis

Norman Magnuson

Norman Magnuson

Participants

Vincas Sruoginis

Vincas Sruoginis

Norm Magnuson

Norm Magnuson

Denise Sante

Denise Sante

Our Ask