As mentioned last November, we're happy to announce that a feature length documentary called Blank City, which uses many of Eugene Merinov's photographs, will be making its premier at the
2009 Tribeca Film Festival.
Cast & CreditsPrimary Cast: Jim Jarmusch, Steve Buscemi, Lydia Lunch, Richard Kern, Nick Zedd, John Waters
Director: Celine Danhier
Producer: Aviva Wishnow
Directors of Photography: Ryo Murakami, Peter Szollosi
Editor: Vanessa Roworth
Program NotesNew York City in the late 1970s. Underground filmmakers collaborated with experimental musicians and vanguard performance artists, all on a shoestring budget, to create the most daring work of their generation. In stark contrast to the poverty and crime that seemed rampant in the economically struggling city, a community of aggressive, confrontational, vibrant artists flourished: hole-in-the-wall screening rooms abounded, manifestos circulated, and Jim Jarmusch, Nick Zedd, and Amos Poe debuted early works to an audience of their peers. These short-lived but profoundly influential movements dubbed themselves "No Wave Cinema" and "Cinema of Transgression."
Director Celine Danhier brings energy and style to her encyclopedic documentary on the figures and history of this rich but gritty era. Blank City includes compelling interviews with such luminaries as Jarmusch, Zedd, Poe, John Waters, Steve Buscemi, Lydia Lunch, Lizzie Borden, Eric Mitchell, Thurston Moore, Debbie Harry, Bette Gordon, Glenn O'Brien, John Lurie, and anyone who was anyone in the late-'70s East Village art scene. Ample film clips from seminal works bring to life a time and a place lost to gentrification and commercialization in the '80s, but that lives on in a still-thriving tradition of avant-garde art.Be sure to
visit the festival website for dates, times & more information!
Reposted from EugeneMerinov.com: For anyone who reads Mojo Magazine out there, keep an eye out for one of Eugene's wonderful shots of Bernard Sumner from the debut US tour of New Order in 1981 at the Ukrainian National Home on 2nd Avenue in the East Village. Its on page 53.
I was tipped off today to these photos on Flicker by someone identifying himself as em1977@verizon.net. From the looks of it, it seems as if this may be the photog who took the picture that appears on the Bauhaus album, Press the Eject and Give Me the Tape, but there is no bio info.
