Documentary Shoots 'Blanks'

Over the weekend, Scooter and I went to see "Blank City," billed as "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 1970s and mid '80s, 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."

The documentary was directed by French newcomer Celine Danhier, and provides an "oral history of the No Wave Cinema and Cinema of Transgression movements" of the time through interviews with the artists who began it all, including directors Jim Jarmusch, Susan Seidelman, Amos Poe and John Waters, as well as Steve Buscemi, Debbie Harry, Ann Magnuson, Fab 5 Freddy, Thurston Moore, photographer Richard Kern, James Nares, Eric Mitchell, Beth B, Scott B, Charlie Ahearn and Nick Zedd.

I hadn't gotten around to writing about the film because I was sort of drawing a blank as to how I felt about it -- it sounded like EXACTLY the kind of movie I'd like, yet I was ambivalent about the finished product. After reading my pal Matt's review (he has video of the Q&A with the director along with artists Maripol and Michael Holman), it helped me reconcile my "problem" with it. The film is nicely executed, yet you can't help but think how much more interesting the whole thing would have been if there had turned out to be a bunch of "Scorseses in the rough" making movies back then. But even the principals repeatedly admit that the stuff was all pretty awful (a la Warhol, whose films I find unwatchable), so you sort of end up feeling like they're overstating how influential these early "pioneers" were and, dare I admit, at times I found myself losing interest .

It seems sort of hard to believe that the same scene was able to produce SO MANY classic music acts -- Blondie, Television, Patti Smith, the Ramones -- did so little in the way of great filmmakers. At least Susan Seidelman -- if she was really part of this -- and Jim Jarmusch had their moments. (I had "Desperately Seeking Susan" and "Stranger Than Paradise" posters in my bedroom in high school.) "Smithereens" was the first indie film to get accepted into Cannes and "Stranger Than Paradise" won the Camera d'Or at Cannes in '84.

I probably would have RAVED about "Blank City" pre-Internet when the idea of even seeing scenes from these Amos Poe films featuring Debbie Harry I'd only read about -- "The Foreigner" and "Unmade Beds," pictures of which left me weak in the knees back when -- were like the celluloid holy grail. But thanks to YouTube, I'd already seen all there was. (The pierogies at Veselka afterward with George were way better and honestly, how much Lydia Lunch does one man need in an evening?)

Still, "Blank City" is worth seeing, if for no other reason than to be reminded just how destitute New York City was back then. It kind of helped me have a better appreciation for why my mom was so mortified at the idea of me and my friends wanting to vacation there when we were teens in the mid-'80s. ("What is in New York????" she asked my older brother in horror.) Apparently she was right: we really did have "no business" being there!