Film: Basquiat

Julian Schnabel’s tribute to his friend and fellow painter Jean-Michel Basquiat is less a conventional biopic than an impressionistic, sensory immersion into the much-mythologized downtown-Manhattan art world of the 1980s. Jeffrey Wright, in his first lead film role, stars as the visionary artist whose rise from graffiti tagger to art star forces him to confront the glare of sudden fame, along with racism, his own struggles with addiction, and the difficulties of being self-determining and free in America. Bolstered by an ensemble cast that includes a sublime performance by David Bowie channeling Andy Warhol, Schnabel’s directorial debut—presented here in the filmmaker’s own luminous black-and-white remastering—is a profoundly expressive elegy for a radiant life cut short.

This film was selected by film historian and educator Gerard Amsellem in response to the exhibition, Iconic: Kathleen Gilje Repaints Art History. Amsellem will moderate a Q&A after the screening.

About Gerard Amsellem

Artist, educator and filmmaker Gerard Amsellem has directed several short films and is currently working on two independent film projects. His short film, Bartleby (2013), was awarded a Director’s Citation by the Black Maria Film Festival and made an Official Selection of both the Garden State Film Festival and the Twin Rivers Film Festival in Asheville, NC. The mission of his production company, New Waves Productions, is the promotion of film as an art form and public access to high quality cinema. He also just finished a documentary on a French painter called “Creation until the end Bernard Requichot” As an educator, Gerard developed the curriculum for the first ever foreign film course at Livingston High School and he also pioneered a program that engages students in the art of film-making, from screenwriting to editing.

Ticket & Visitor Information

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Photo courtesy of the Criterion Collection