Blank City

Blank City(Celine Danhier, 2011) is an oral history of No-Wave cinema. No-Wave was a boom in underground filming on the Lower East Side of 1970's New York. The main concentration of these films was enhanced moods and textures of the time. It was highly influenced by the current music scene and poverty of the time. Because of the wide spread poverty, the film makers(John Lurie, Nick Zedd, Amos Poe etc) partaking in the scene would make a film on an incredible budget of $100 or less.

I've watched this film twice in two days after being recommended it by a friend. I am so inspired by this generation of film makers, musicians actors and writers that it makes me feel this kind of regret for not being present (twenty years before I was born...). It also makes me wonder whether this type of scene can happen in todays modern world. Since the widespread use of the internet, I feel like there's a very small chance of these kinds of scenes (punkrock, new romantics etc) being able to thrive before being packaged and sold back to us by the media. And it depresses the hell out of me. 

I really want to take inspiration from the energy and inventiveness in this film and mix it into my project by enhancing the DiY authenticity elements of the finished product.