Downtown '81 (2001)
- Directed by
- Edo Bertoglio
- Genre
- documentary film, drama film, biographical film
- Country
- United States
- Runtime
- 1h 15m
- Rating
- 6.7 of 10 from 31 voters
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
A young artist named Jean Michel Basquiat wanders around New York City in the early 1980s. He encounters musicians and artists in the downtown scene. The film follows his attempts to sell a painting and find his place in the neighborhood.
nostalgicgrittyrawlo-fiatmosphericquirkyundergroundurban
What happens
Downtown 81 is a 2000 American film shot in 1980–1981. The film was 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. It 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 East 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. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
More like this
Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat (2017)
The Collaboration
Basquiat (1996)
Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (2010)
Basquiat: Rage to Riches
A Conversation with Basquiat (2006)
Baraka (1992)
Mulholland Drive (2001)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.