Blank City

What they say about film school----you don't learn much, but you make connections. That's the important thing.

I've said before that would-be film students should save their money and find some other way to make connections, they should make their own movies for no money---if they wait to be discovered it'll never happen. And...and...and...what other sensible advice did I have for the young? I can't remember. Don't listen to advice from people like me? What do I know.

I watched a movie called Blank City, a documentary about an underground film movement which appeared in the 1980s in New York City. Among the people in this movement, such as it was, were Jim Jarmusch, Deborah Harry, Amos Poe, Lydia Lunch, Lizzie Bordon, Steve Buschemi and others. They lived in a horrible section of New York where you could rent an apartment for $50 a month-----it would have cost you three times that to rent just a room here at that time. But it was a dangerous crime ridden area. Most of the people seemed to be more into "music" than film. And they weren't that good at either. They were philisophically opposed to technique, one of them said.

And most of the clips they showed of their work didn't look very good. You'd think black and white film shot in New York would be more interesting.

It's amazing how many of them went on to success, although we don't see how many failed, or how many were murdered in the streets.

Well, moving pictures are even less of a novelty now than they were back then. Everyone has a video camera, even if they don't want one.

See if you can create your own underground cinematic movement.