Comments like this one authorize O'Brien particularly, and Downtown 81 as a whole, as an authentic repository of Basquiat's history and memory that explicitly contradicts Schnabel's version of events. The DVD thus frames the film as a ...

Dave Kehr (2001) in his review of Downtown 81 for the New York Times discusses the film's portrayal of Alphabet City as “an unruly place full of garbage, graffiti, rubble-strewn lots, unlicensed after-hours clubs and highly idealistic ...

Downtown 81 chronicles the New York City that Rudy Giuliani didn't want you to see. Shot in 1980–81 in Manhattan by fashion photographer Edo Bertoglio, it's a time capsule of the Big Apple's vibrant underground arts scene, complete with ...

Basquiat resurrects both the painter and his time.

FILM FIRST FILE #2: A CINEMATIC TOUR OF NEW YORK IN THE '80s Beyond being a realistic portrait of gay life in '80s ... Queens Movie: Coming to America (John Landis, 1988) Neighborhood: Lower East Side, Manhattan Movie: Downtown 81 (Edo ...

... Myron Goble, Alfre Woodard Director: Maya Angelou Film Editor: Nancy Richardson Music Composer: Stanley Clarke ... Lance Crouther, Ali LeRoi, Chris Rock Downtown 81 (2000) Alternate Title: New York Beat Movie Downtown 81 stars ...

In 2000, the American films Downtown 81 (aka New York Beat, shot in 1980) and Stations of the Elevated (shot in 1981) were released. Downtown 81 focused on graffiti artist Jean Basquiat (1960–1988) and featured graffiti artists Lee ...

Basquiat's changing affairs are described by his lover Patti Anne Blau with the metaphor of being a whirlwind (ibid., 63). 114 According to the film Downtown 81 Courtney Love embodies Basquiat's girl friend Tina Lhotsky whom ...

The previous summer the Brooklyn artist had taken on the role of playing himself in New York Beat, released many years later as Downtown 81, a semifictional movie that veered between neorealism and urban fairytale.

Stuck in storage for nearly two decades after initial investor Rizzoli pulled out, the movie was finally released by Zeitgeist Films in 2001. Downtown '81 is a unique time capsule of the early '80s, during the days when.