Event

Downtown 81

Starring the legendary American painter, graffiti artist, poet and musician Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), Downtown 81 is both a post-modernist fairytale and a vivid depiction of the downtown New York art and music scene in the early 1980s. The film chronicles a day in the life of a 19 year-old starving artist (Basquiat) who must raise money to reclaim the apartment from which he has been evicted. Hoping to sell a painting to earn the rent, he wanders the downtown streets, painting in hand, encountering painters, models, junkies, graffiti artists, rappers and rockers whose lives and performances provide a slice of life from one of the most exciting periods in American culture.

A virtual "lost" film, shot in 1981 but not completed and released until two decades later, Downtown 81 not only captures one of the twentieth century's most interesting and lively artists in Basquiat, but also features music from many of leading musical artists of the era including Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Tuxedomoon, The Plastics, James White and the Blacks, The Lounge Lizards, and DNA

"Captures that New York moment at its creative best." - The Guardian

"Its bygone-ness still abuzz with creativity and movement, "Downtown 81" is a celluloid scrapbook that we can all be thankful for in helping capture the rumble before takeoff." - Los Angeles Times

"Performances by DNA and the Plastics alone are worth the price of admission." - Houston Chronicle

"A fascinating if fragmented, dreamlike look at the downtown art-music-fashion scene of a yeasty, creative era." - Dallas Morning News

"Gives us a glimpse of the city as it was, suggesting that there was something revolutionary, even inspiring, about those days of not-so yore." - Chicago Tribune