Join the Washington DC Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Jun 19th at 4pm for Blank City at the Landmark E Street Cinema . Look for Brian F. wearing a green “Life is Good” t-shirt in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.
In the late 1970s and ’80s downtown Manhattan was the anchor of vanguard filmmaking, the undisputed center of Americanasome would say internationalaart and film. Blank City tells the long-overdue tale of the motley crew of renegade filmmakers that emerged from an economically bankrupt and dangerous period of New York history. It’s a fascinating look at the way this misfit cinema used the deserted, bombed-out Lower East Side landscapes to craft daring works that would go on to profoundly influence Independent Film today. Director CA(c)line Danhier captures the idiosyncratic, explosive energy of the “No Wave Cinema” and “Cinema of Transgression” movements, where filmmakers such as Jim Jarmusch, Eric Mitchell, Beth B, Charlie Ahearn, Lizzie Borden and Amos Poe showcased the city’s vibrant grit, and bore witness to the rising East Village art and rock scenes and the birth of hip hop. Short, long, color or black-and-white, their stripped-down films portrayed themes of alienation and dissonance with a raw and genuine spirit, at times with deadpan humor or blurring lines between fiction and reality. Also featuring Debbie Harry, Steve Buscemi, John Lurie, Thurston Moore, Richard Kern, Ann Magnuson and John Waters.
Note this is a special one-week-only engagement, so please purchase your ticket in advance at https://www.movietickets.com/purchase.asp?perf_id=644711523