Village East Cinemas
181 Second Ave. at Twelfth St.
July 22-29, $15 per screening (includes after-party)
www.nyfilmvideo.com
The competitive New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, which calls itself “The Voice of Indie Film,” begins tonight with a party at BLVD that kicks off a week of screenings at Village East, comprising a wide-ranging group of more than two hundred shorts, features, animated works, and documentaries. Although many of the films are significantly low-budget and amateurish, there are still several with familiar cast and crew and higher production values. Matthew Modine and Danny Aiello star in Abel Ferrara’s MULBERRY ST., Billy Zane and Edward Furlong lead the cast in Uwe Boll’s ATTACK ON DARFUR, Ol’ Dirty Bastard is profiled in Raison Allah’s “DIRTY,” Mario Van Peebles anchors Michael Bergmann’s comedy TIED TO A CHAIR, and Liam Neeson narrates Melissa Villanueva and J. Michael Kipikash’s RESTING PLACES. In addition to film screenings, there will be three seminars: “In Conversation with Director Abel Ferrara” on July 23 at 12 noon, “The Truth About Distribution” with festival founder Stuart Alson on July 24 at 10:00 am, and “The Fundamentals of Publicity and Grass Roots Marketing for Your Indie Film” with Brad Balfour, Cheryl Duncan, and Hugh McGrory on July 24 at 10:00 am. Each night will conclude with an after-party at such locations as Columbus 72, 8 Bond Street, the Gates, Le Souk, Faluka, Veranda, and USL, with free admission for same-day ticket holders.
Director Tamra Davis (GUNCRAZY) transports viewers back to the 1980s New York art scene in the intimate documentary JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT: THE RADIANT CHILD. In 1986, just as the career of street artist Jean-Michel Basquiat was exploding, Davis filmed him being interviewed by designer Becky Johnson, a revealing portrait that she put away in a drawer for more than twenty years. Davis finally brings out that footage, making it the centerpiece of this new examination of the ambitious, influential artist and musician who experienced massive success before falling hard and fast and dying of a drug overdose at the age of twenty-seven in 1988. Davis, a friend of Basquiat’s, conducts new interviews with many of the people from his inner circle, including art dealers Jeffrey Deitch, Larry Gagosian, Annina Nosei, Tony Shafrazi, and Bruno Bischofberger; Basquiat’s girlfriends Suzanne Mallouk and Kelle Inman; close Basquiat friends Diego Cortez and Fab 5 Freddy; NEW YORK BEAT cable TV host Glenn O’Brien; and fellow artist Julian Schnabel, who directed Basquiat in DOWNTOWN 81. Davis has also dug up amazing footage from the 1980s of Basquiat that shows him to be a unique, driven figure who used whatever he could — from broken windowframes and doors he’d find on the street to immense canvases — to spread his art and world view, which began with drawings in which he identified himself as Samo, criticizing contemporary art as “the same old shit.” Ultimately, though, it was his relationship with Andy Warhol that was the beginning of the end. JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT: THE RADIANT CHILD is a dazzling document of a fascinating time and a cautionary tale of success that comes too fast, too soon. Davis will be at Film Forum for the 8:00 shows on July 21-22, with Fab 5 Freddy appearing at the 8:00 screening on July 23.
