Downtown 81

Slam poet, actor, and musician Saul Williams provides the voiceover narration and dubs the dialogue for the main character, Jean-Michel Basquiat. “Downtown 81” is a feature film starring the legendary American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) who needs to raise money to reclaim the apartment from which he has been evicted. He wanders the downtown streets carrying a painting he hopes to sell, encountering friends, whose lives (and performances) we peek into. Basquiat was a 19-year-old painter, graffiti artist, poet and musician when he played the lead in this film, which vividly depicts the explosive downtown New York art and music scene of 1980-81.