downtown

22 movies and shows

Moments Like This Never Last

Fri, 20 Aug 2021

Dash Snow rejected a life of privilege to make his own way as an artist on the streets of downtown New York City in the late 1990s. Developing from a notorious graffiti tagger into an international art star, he documented his drug- and alcohol-fueled nights with the surrogate family he formed with friends and fellow artists Ryan McGinley and Dan Colen before his death by heroin overdose in 2009. Drawing from Snow’s unforgettable body of work and involving archival footage, Cheryl Dunn’s exceptional portrait captures his all-too-brief life of reckless excess and creativity.

Night at the Golden Eagle

Fri, 17 May 2002

Two elderly criminals spend their final night in Los Angeles, California at the Golden Eagle Hotel prior to their departure to Las Vegas, Nevada, to lead a life without crime. Unfortunately, on the hottest night of the summer, these two ex-criminals seemingly get caught in the malice of prostitutes, pimps, drunken bums, fighting monkeys, and young runaways.

The Right Side of My Brain

Mon, 09 Apr 1984

Lydia Lunch and Richard Kern's first collaborative effort, The Right Side of My Brain, is a glimpse into the world of unsatiable female lust, narrated by Lydia Lunch. The film was initially dismissed and dismayed by critics such as J. Hoberman, but the criticism of The Right Side of My Brain received only pushed the two to go one step further with Fingered (1986).

Downtown: A Street Tale

Sun, 07 Nov 2004

A group of street kids find that the only way to make it through the day is to hold onto their dreams while their reality is eating out of dumpsters, turning tricks and squatting in abandoned buildings.

Submit to Me Now

Thu, 01 Jan 1987

Oddballs dancing, leering at camera, guy shaving a nontraditional part of his body and man ripping his own throat out, woman stabbing herself to death.

Night Lunch

Tue, 09 Dec 1975

This is Poe and Král's first effort, shot on small-gauge stock, before their more well-known endeavor The Blank Generation (1976) came to be. A "DIY" portrait of the New York music scene, the film is a patchwork of footage of numerous rock acts performing live, at venues like Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, the dive bars of Greenwich Village and, of course, CBGB.

No Picnic

Fri, 17 Jan 1986

A cinematic love letter to a pre-gentrification New York City

The Deadly Art of Survival

Mon, 01 Jan 1979

Real-life kung fu master Nathan Ingram stars in this gritty, low-budget martial arts epic as a local karate school owner who clashes with a gang of drug traffickers posing as the owners of a rival dojo. Director Charlie Ahearn (who helmed the landmark hip-hop film Wild Style) used the housing projects next to his New York Lower East Side apartment as his central location in this 1979 classic, shot on a vintage Super 8 camera.

Man Under Wire

Sun, 23 Jan 2005

An interaction between two downtown legends and a pigeon.

Nun Nancy

Tue, 01 Jun 2021

Nun Nancy follows the heartfelt ministry of a passionate woman of God that served the inner city of Baltimore, Maryland disguised as a bartender so that she could more effectively share God's love to the drunks and prostitutes.

Manhattan Love Suicides

Tue, 01 Jan 1985

A series of short films by Richard Kern: Stray Dogs, Woman At The Wheel, Thrust In Me, & I Hate You Now.

Story of a Junkie

Mon, 25 Nov 1985

Filmed in documentary-style, the film follows the character of Gringo, a young man looking for fortune in New York, only to fall into heroin addiction.

Waydowntown

Fri, 25 Jan 2002

Four young office workers have a bet going to see who can last the longest without going outside. In the maze that is the downtown core of a large city, glass skywalks connect apartment buildings, office towers and shopping malls. Its day 28 of the bet and over the lunch hour, as the office prepares for the company founder's retirement party, things start to seriously unravel.

The Town-Sick Ones

Sun, 01 Jan 2017

In downtown Buenos Aires, messengers Roble and Tripa are robbed of an important package. After realizing they were betrayed by their boss, Filo Mendoza, they decide to take revenge with the help of a friendly street vendor, Patricio Rey.

Edwin Parker

Sat, 01 Oct 1988

The titular cackling machete-wielding nuthouse escapee prowls around the city killing people.

Apple Juice

Tue, 23 Jan 1990

Apple Juice is an classic skateboarding documentary shot by SKATE NYC locals from the late 80’s early 90’s. SKATE NYC is a legendary skateboard store that was on Ave A and 9th St. in the East Village in NY from 1986-91.

A Catastrophe in Hester Street

Tue, 12 Jan 1904

Two workers leave boxes of explosives with a push cart street vendor while they visit a bar. They return drunk and accidentally drop a box of nitro powder, causing an explosion that wrecks the block and blows off the vendor’s arm. A policeman shows up to the carnage and tries to replace the vendor’s arm with a severed leg.