Film
Downtown ’81
Shot in 1981 but not completed for nearly two decades, this essential slice of downtown-scene cool stars a then-unknown, 19-year-old Jean-Michel Basquiat as a penniless, recently evicted young artist wandering the streets of Manhattan as he searches for a mystery woman and a place to crash. Featuring a who’s-who of demimonde luminaries—including Debbie Harry, Arto Lindsay, Fab 5 Freddy, James Chance, and Kid Creole—this freewheeling urban picaresque is a seductively absorbing record of the art, music, and energy of bohemian New York at a time when punk, no wave, and hip-hop were all shaking the underground.
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