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Charting the history of New York City and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s early steps into the art scene, where his prolific graffiti first caught the eye of the Manhattan community, within and beyond the art world.
It’s late-70s Manhattan, New York City is on the brink of bankruptcy and President Gerald Ford refuses a federal bail-out: houses are abandoned and torched, streets are littered with broken glass, and a community of punk and jazz youth blossom in the city’s corners of violence and depravation.
This is the story of the prolific artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and his early steps into the art scene, where his graffiti that articulated a broken city and ‘not 2-nite homey blues’ first caught the eye of the Manhattan community, within and beyond the art world. This new documentary brings together Basquiat’s collaborators and peers, from Al Diaz to Fab Freddy 5, from this early period alongside never-before-seen footage of Basquiat’s works to remember a curious period from New York City’s history.