Downtown 81
1981 / 72 minutes /
Director: EDO BERTOGLIO
CAST: JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT, DEBBIE HARRY, FAB 5 FREDDY, KID CREOLE AND THE COCONUTS, TUXEDOMOON, THE PLASTICS, DEBI MAZAR, COOKIE MUELLER, LEE QUINONES
PRODUCERS: MICHAEL ZILKHA & MARIPOL
In 1980, writer and Warhol associate Glenn O’Brien, Swiss photographer Edo Bertoglio, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, a graffiti innovator and noise music artist who’d just begun to exhibit his paintings, hit the streets of lower Manhattan to make a movie about the bombed-out bohemia that they knew, with a script by O’Brien, Bertoglio directing, and Basquiat, a naturally compelling presence, starring. Left incomplete due to money problems and assembled for release in 2000, Downtown 81, which follows Basquiat trying to move a painting while hustling for a place to sleep, became a window on a lost world of life on the margins and crazy creative ferment. Featuring John Lurie, Fab 5 Freddy, and Debbie Harry, with musical performances by DNA, James White and the Blacks, and Kid Creole and the Coconuts—and Manhattan in all its mangy glory.
A Metrograph Pictures release.
Previous Bookings
Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
The Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL
Metrograph, New York, NY
Time & Space Limited, Hudson, NY
IndieMemphis, Memphis, TN
DePauw University, Greencastle, IN
ACME Screening Room, Lambertville, NJ
The Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema, Charleston, WV
The Roxie, San Francisco, CA
Living Room Theaters, Portland, OR
The Apohadion, Portland, ME
BAMcinematek, Brooklyn, NY
The Beacon Cinema, Seattle, WA
Alamo Drafthouse, Yonkers, NY
The Belcourt Theatre, Nashville, TN
International House, Philadelphia, PA
FilmBar, Phoenix, AZ
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.
Austin Film Society, Austin, TX
Tivoli at the Nelson-Atkins, Kansas City, MO
Cinema Detroit, Detroit, MI
The Plaza Theatre, Atlanta, GA
Hopewell Theater, Hopewell, NJ
Union Cinema, Milwaukee, WI
Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria, NY
Rowhouse Cinema, Pittsburgh, PA
Laemmle Royal, Los Angeles, CA
Ryder Film Series, Bloomington, IN
The Tower Theatre, Sacramento, CA
Angelika Film Center – Carmel Mountain, San Diego, CA
Angelika Film Center, Dallas, TX
Angelika Film Center, Plano, TX
Angelika Film Center at Mosaic, Fairfax, VA
Webster Film Series, Saint Louis, MO
Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL
Dundee Theater, Omaha, NE
The Frida Cinema, Santa Ana, CA
Enzian Theater, Maitland, FL
Alamo Drafthouse, San Francisco, CA
Globe Cinema, Calgary, AB
Digital Gym Cinema, San Diego, CA
Suns Cinema, Washington, D.C.
TIFF Cinematheque, Toronto, ON
Northwest Film Center, Portland, OR
The Charles Theatre, Baltimore, MD
Cleveland Cinematheque, Cleveland, OH
The Grand Cinema, Tacoma, WA
The Trylon Cinema, Minneapolis, MN
The Texas Theatre, Dallas, TX
Cinematheque, Madison, WI
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX