Jean-Michel Basquiat : Videos
Interviews with the artist, testimonies, art analysis, and documentaries such as “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child“, famous documentary film produced and directed by Tamra Davis.
It is also present the movie Downtown 81, film starring Basquiat and awarded at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.
Downtown 81 (a.k.a. New York Beat Movie) is a film that was shot in 1980-1981 and released in 2000.
The film, directed by Edo Bertoglio and written and produced by Glenn O’Brien and Patrick Montgomery, with post-production in 1999-2000 by Glenn O’Brien and Maripol, is a rare real-life snapshot of an ultra-hip subculture of post-punk era Manhattan.
Starring renowned artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and featuring such Village artists as James Chance, Amos Poe, Walter Steding, Tav Falco and Elliott Murphy, the film is a bizarre elliptical urban fairy tale.
In 1999, Michael Zilkha, founder of ZE Records (the label of several of the film’s artists), became the film’s executive producer.
“New York Beat Movie” was shot over December 1980 and January 1981. It was funded by Rizzoli, but the movie was abandoned in the mid-’80s due to financial problems. Producer O’Brien resurrected the film after acquiring the rights in 1999 (over a decade after Basquiat’s death). It was released in 2000 as “Downtown ’81” at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.
Downtown 81 official trailer
Basquiat on the set of “Downtown 81”
