Much of rock history is defined by the images and scenes that coincide with the music: Elvis’ hip-shake, Chuck Berry’s chicken strut, the Beatles’ mop tops and Pete Townshend’s emphatic strum. Photographs and films have engrained these visual experiences into our minds, making the images just as memorable and powerful as the music.

New York City’s punk movement of the mid-to-late ’70s was a much smaller scene compared to the burgeoning beginnings of rock ‘n’ roll. Relegated to a few clubs in New York’s Bowery, the punk movement never received the overwhelming attention it may have deserved. At the time, it probably didn’t seem like too much — a rag-tag collection of bands who were known more for the energy they injected into music than their playing prowess. Over time, however, the Bowery bands’ longstanding influence on the direction of rock music has been realized by a great number of people.

It seems Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong knew this all along. The two 20-somethings carried their heavy cable-access equipment down to the clubs after work to film acts ranging from the Talking Heads to the Dead Boys and Heartbreakers from 1975-80. Their vast collection of concert films have been compiled and edited for “Nightclubbing,” a work in progress giving what Ivers describes as the “ultimate New York scene” the visual impact it had been lacking.

“Nightclubbing: Part I,” was shown at the Bartell Theater Friday, April 2, as part of the Wisconsin Film Festival. The first hour was a compilation of what Armstrong called “Nightclubbing: Greatest Hits,” an assemblage of the series’ best performances. The second hour is devoted to a complete set from both the Talking Heads and The Dead Boys.

Appropriately, the film opens with a series of shots of a crowded audience from the famous CBGB’s club. The slow synth bump of David Bowie and Iggy Pop’s “Nightclubbing” sets the scene as Ivers and Armstrong deliver what must be the most sweeping document of American punk rock.

Displayed in chronological order, “Hits’s” first act is Blondie’s dimly lit performance of The Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale” in 1975. A far cry from the tight new wave they would become, Harry doesn’t seems a little insecure on the stage, stays away from the camera and casts no more than a glance at the audience. She lacks the dynamic poise she would grow in to, but nevertheless the band rips into the song with trademark New York abandon.

The Talking Heads follow, as geek-chic David Byrne steps to the microphone wearing a neatly tucked white shirt. He addresses the crowd with little more than a chirp, introducing his band (then a three-piece) as an opening act. The sweat drips down his face as he starts singing. He’s no more than three feet from the audience, and the stage is probably a foot tall.

“CB’s was so intimate and close,” Ivers said. “There was no seam between the artists and the audience.”

The harder rocking bands would follow: the Dead Boys, Iggy Pop, the Heartbreakers, the Dead Kennedys and Voidoids. On most of the acts, the sound is remarkable, in sync and Ivers admits it “might be better than most of the bands had on their records.”

By the mid ’70s, the acts started to change. The Lounge Lizards, Strange Party, and Pylon represented the new-wave aesthetic, with larger lineups and the additions of keyboards and sometimes free-form jazz saxophone. At the same time, the Dead Kennedys, the Cramps and the Ballistic Kisses were contributing a harder edge to their music.

Ivers and Armstrong stopped filming the scene in 1980.

“We got burned towards the end,” Ivers said. “Part of our collection was robbed, and the scene got sour. The mob moved in, and it just got too big for us.”

Stashed away for almost 25 years, Ivers and Armstrong opened their library and are in the process of compiling footage of over 80 bands, and are currently interviewing the artists and people who made the scene what it was, to put together a DVD.

What stands out about the performances is how genuine they come across. The sweat, the pain, the connection with the audience and the contagious energy can all be felt.

“The bands played because that’s all they could do,” Ivers said of the New York acts. “Brit punks were media whores. The Americans were running pure. They did it because they really couldn’t do anything else.

Ivers’ sentiments show themselves in the reluctance of the bands to interact with the camera. It’s always about the interaction with the audience and spreading the energy of their music. It’s in this that the performances of “Nightclubbing” give the punk scene the images it has lacked.

Stiv Bator, lead singer of the Dead Boys, pounding himself in the crotch with his mic stand is absolutely priceless. Iggy Pop running his fingers down his arm like an insect scurrying down a branch and his exuberant stage drives. Talking Head Tina Weymouth’s robotic bass playing and Byrne’s eccentric banter. The ripped shirts, the studded bracelets and hot, stinking cavernous clubs are all part of what made the New York punk scene. Thankfully, Ivers and Armstrong have supplied an essential record of rock history. Luckily they knew something it seems the rest did not.