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In 2006, a YouTube account called Artssiren uploaded a series of clips for an amateur documentary called “New York City Subculture ‘96.” The doc is set in the East Village and mostly features downtown squatters hanging out on St. Marks stoops talking about tattoos, philosophy, and love. Characters include Kia, a topless punk who confronts a pig, Bernie, a squatter who wants to convince you he doesn’t look like a squatter, and Randy, the most emo boy in America. The film was made by Nia Janeen Brown, who now goes by Chloé Le Roux. She deserves a retrospective.
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on it’s face this is not a particularly interesting documentary, the editing is serviceable and the interviews aren’t exactly dynamic, but what it lacks in creativity it more than makes up for in content. blank city tells the story of the no wave movement in 70s/80s downtown nyc from the ones who lived it. truly one of the most inspiring documentaries that i found at a pivotal point in my life that changed the trajectory of how i view filmmaking, art, and just coolness in general. blank city is the story of one of the most transgressive artist communities of all time and they’re not very well known, just a few names made it to the mainstream with many others becoming underground legends. in fact a few of the films featured in this documentary are only viewable by screening at the museum of modern art, totally unreleased everywhere else (and trust me i’ve tried to find them) this doc got me into the new york art scene, velvet underground, jim jarmusch, glenn o’brien’s tv party, patti smith, andy warhol, lydia lunch, john lurie, jean-michel basquiat and on and on and on. this film opened a gateway into filmmaking that i had never even considered at that point in my life and i’m grateful i found it. the best part is: kino lorber was kind enough to upload the entire thing on youtube to watch right now!
Jan 17, 2025
A documentary about grafitti and breakdancing. Between the antagonists (Ed Koch and Cap), the pearl clutching public and the charismatic subjects it really keeps you engaged. Also really solid editing. Tony silver was on one.
you can watch it on nightflight but if money is tight I’m sure if you poke around the usual spots you can find it ;)
May 12, 2024
A very nice 16mm snapshot following the interactions of community members and actors/filmmakers during Spike Lee's ambitious block-long natural-light takeover of Stuyvesant Avenue in the summer of '88. Required viewing if you helped gentrify this neighborhood obvz.
Nov 11, 2024
Top Recs from @arjun
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If you don’t have a DAW like Ableton you can use Audacity, an open source music software, to slow down time. Audacity comes with an effect called Paulstretch, named after an old program called Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch that was used to make this iconic YouTube video. It allows you to slow down audio files by inordinate amounts, turning silly little love songs into monumental drone landscapes. You can discover hidden melodies buried in the waveform and imagine life outside of time.
Sep 13, 2022
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It’s a weird way to end a recommendations list, but there are things you should just keep to yourself. Also, you should be comfortable with the fact that there are things from which you’re gatekept. Anyway, thanks for reading my recommendations lol.
Sep 13, 2022
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When I first moved to New York, I made friends with poets by frequenting a little library off the Morgan L called Mellow Pages. Back then poets were obsessed with calling anything a poem: tweets, blogs, videos, facebook event invites. Irony hadn’t died yet and new sincerity was just beginning, which made it all a bit insufferable, but I stuck around for the poems. A lot of those people either moved away, moved on, or got canceled, but one thing that remains from that time is cunny4. For over ten years, Bunny Rogers has been posting her poetry to her Tumblr. Her writing is explicit, private, tender, funny, perverse, and intimate. She is the greatest poet of our generation. It’s poetry, just poetry, no bullshit.
Sep 13, 2022