Blank City

Modern independent film can trace many of its roots to New York's East Village, circa 1977, where artists and musicians took up Super 8 cameras to create gritty, grainy provocative productions at a time when rejection of formal training was the norm. Of course, it didn't hurt that rents were dirt cheap and drugs were easy to come by. John Lurie of the Lounge Lizards put his music on hold to act in Jim Jarmusch's movies, while Lydia Lunch merged her punk and poetic talents in Richard Kern's “Cinema of Transgression” movement, and graffiti artist and painter Jean-Michel Basquiat crashed on everyone's floor when he wasn't out honing his craft by spray-painting on walls. Director Céline Danhier's Blank City mixes interviews of artists and observers with footage from many of the films—which were often edgy, sometimes violent, and frequently hilarious—backed by the music of Television, Patti Smith, James Chance, and others. An era like this obviously couldn't last; AIDS dealt the first blow, after which gentrification scattered the survivors to the four winds and varied careers. Blank City captures a scene that was never pretty but left its influential mark on much of what came after. DVD extras include an interview with Danhier, deleted and extended scenes, and outtakes. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (H. Seggel)