Kings County Cinema Society at LaunchPad

When:Wednesday August 25, 2010
Time:8:30pm
Where:Launchpad
721 Franklin Ave.
btw Park and Sterling
Brooklyn, NY
Cost:Free

From Kings County Cinema Society

Tonight begins Kings County Cinema Society’s official residency at LaunchPad, new art space on Franklin Ave. already doing great things for the community (photo exhibitions! oral history projects! community gardens!). They’ll have curated screenings there on the FOURTH WEDNESDAY OF EVERY MONTH until further notice.

This Wednesday’s screening will have Director Thomas W. Campbell to introduce his recent documentary Birth of the Sun. The 2009 Doc is about forgotten artist Grady Alexis, a Haitian immigrant who settled in the exploding art scene of early ’80s lower Manhattan, inspired many, struggled to develop a unique vision, and finally died in a street scuffle with an off-duty policeman in 1991.

Birth of the Sun will be followed by Downtown 81 (aka “New York Beat Movie,” 1981, 72min), trippy “documentary”-cum-urban fairytale by Edo Bertoglio. Follow a young Jean-Michel Basquiat on a whirlwind tour through the vibrant lower Manhattan art scene, with appearances by Debbie Harry as a mystical bag lady, The Plastics, DNA, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Fab Five Freddy, Vincent Gallo, graf legend Lee Quinones and on and on. The original soundtrack of club performances survives, but the original dialogue was lost; the incomparable Saul Williams dubbed the late Basquiat’s lines for the resurrected film’s release in 2000. Essential New York cinema, a great lead-in to the new Basquiat doc The Radiant Child (now at Film Forum), and “an extraordinary real-life snapshot of hip, arty, clubland Manhattan in the post-punk era.” [Variety] re-release trailer

A Q&A session with director Tom Campbell will take place following Birth of the Sun.
FREE – BYOB – popcorn will be served. In the sweet backyard, whether permitting; in the gallery if rainy.

**hanging out to follow, but also an informal meeting of programmers/ filmmakers/ artists interested in KCCS events into the fall**