Celine Danhier’s documentary Blank City: The No Wave Years focuses on the '70s and '80s underground No Wave movement, and its fixtures. In the trailer below you'll get a picture of what this mixture looks like, it includes John Waters, Jim Jarmusch, Blondie, Steve Buscemi, as well as some of the unofficial headquarters of the genre—all in an East Village that would never protest red curtains.
Danhier says, “New York was a very different and dangerous place to live then, like the Wild West. It was run-down and almost bankrupt. But from that, this amazing do-it-yourself attitude grew.” The doc's website further explains, "Blank City tells the long-overdue tale of a disparate crew of renegade filmmakers who emerged from an economically bankrupt and dangerous moment in New York history. In the late 1970′s and mid 80′s, when the city was still a wasteland of cheap rent and cheap drugs, these directors crafted daring works that would go on to profoundly influence the development of independent film as we know it today."
Here's Steve Buscemi discussing the first feature film he was in, Eric Mitchell’s The Way It Is, in the doc (which will be at the IFC Center on April 6th):
