Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child

EXCLUSIVE FIRST RUN! PRESENTED IN HIGH DEFINITION! ► Premiered at Sundance earlier this year, Tamra Davis’s radiant documentary chronicles the meteoric rise and tragic demise of art-world wunderkind Jean-Michel Basquiat. A rebellious runaway who initially gained notoriety as a graffiti artist in the blighted New York City of the 1970s, Basquiat first put paint to canvas in 1981, and sold his first painting to Deborah Harry for $200. By 1983, his bold paintings — wildly energetic Neo-expressionist works influenced by graffiti and bebop — had won him international critical and commercial success; he was only 23. Basquiat was, for a time, a close friend and collaborator of Andy Warhol’s. He dated Madonna. He was also a heroin addict, and his drug problems worsened as fame and fortune mounted. And, as a rare black artist, an “exotic,” in a mostly white milieu, he was constantly forced to confront racist assumptions. Basquiat died in 1988, at the age of 27. Director Davis’s was a friend of Basquiat’s. Her superb portrait of his life and art is built around a rare, never-before-seen interview with Basquiat that she filmed in 1985, at the height of his success. “[A] definitive documentary . . . Much can be gleaned from insider interviews and archival footage, but it is Basquiat’s own words and work that powerfully convey the mystique and allure of both the artist and the man” (Sundance Film Festival). “It places Basquiat’s art in a cultural context with an enthusiasm and zest that make the many pictures shown come blazingly alive” (Stephen Holden, New York Times). Colour, HD CAM. 88 mins.