“Make Me Famous,” a 1980s documentary about East Village-based painter Edward Brezinski, is finally showing in the East Village

July 24, 2024

After screenings in New York and elsewhere last year, “Make Me Famous” is finally showing in the neighborhood where the documentary is set – the East Village.

Starting Saturday, Angelika’s Village East will show the film three times at the cinema on Second Avenue and 12th Street.

“Make me famous” is:

…a madcap foray into the New York art scene of the 1980s, set amid the dazzling career of painter Edward Brezinski, hell-bent on making it. What begins as an investigation into Brezinski’s legacy and mysterious disappearance becomes a sharp, witty portrait of the New York art scene of the 1980s, and a compelling snapshot of an unknown artist capturing the spirit of an iconic era.

Director Brian Vincent and producer Heather Spore will be present at the following screenings with these special guests:

• July 27, 5 p.m.

Photographer Marcia Resnick, photographer Josef Astor, archive cameraman Jim C

• July 31, 7 p.m. Filmmaker and photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and curator and archivist Sur Rodney (Sur)

• August 1, 7 p.m. Artist Peter McGough and Basquiat’s first gallery owner Annina Nosei

Ticket information can be found here.

Brezinski and CLICK model for NY TALK Magazine, 1984, photo by Jonathan Postal

From 543 E. Sixth St.: Opening of the B-Side Gallery, 1984, photo by Gary Azon

Over the last year I’ve been in touch with Spore and Vincent (previous posts here). I asked them both to comment on the EV premiere of the film.

Heather

Our dream was to launch locally, but when you have your own theatrical release without the help of a distributor, you have to deal with the circumstances. Our indie documentary has had an incredible and unprecedented run in cinemas for over a year.

In the 1980s, independent theaters were more likely to make an effort to hire local filmmakers, and the films often ran for longer periods. Does anyone remember “Basket Case”? First-time director Frank Henenlotter shot the film locally in 1982, and it ran for several years at the Waverly Cinema (now IFC).

Make Me Famous has defied all the odds of the current film landscape and has been present in New York City for over a year. We may be the highest-grossing film you’ve never heard of! I can’t believe it took us a whole year to open in the area we dreamed of opening in!

The major New York press turned its back on us because we had an unconventional performance. That surprised us because this is really a love letter to the creativity that was coming out of the Lower East Side in the 1980s. Although it would have been nice to be there The New York Times – we managed it without them.

I think our journey of DIY distribution was very fitting considering that the East Village artists of the 1980s actually went down the same path. They did it themselves, and look at what they accomplished!

Brian

I’m a Juilliard-trained actor who was too young to experience the 1980s scene. I discovered it through books like Cynthia Carr’s Fire in the Belly about David Wojnarowicz. So I was looking for a story that explored that era when young people started their own scene after being rejected by the mainstream.

In the 1980s, New York was broke, rent was dirt cheap, and anyone could live out their bohemian fantasies – and they did, by the hundreds! As actor Eric Bogosian recalls, “The prize went to those who could do the most creative things.”

In “Make Me Famous” we return to the “crime scene,” as the artists like to call it, thanks to the artists and gallery owners who lived it. And thanks to their fantastic videos/artwork and photography, the audience is immersed in the grim storyline. Only we take an unusual route. Instead of documenting the famous artists for the millionth time, our story revolves around an obscure, mysterious and charismatic painter from the scene, Edward Brezinski, whose career in many ways parallels the rise and fall of the scene.

The documentary is not an advertisement, but an opportunity to experience what it was like to be an aspiring artist at that time. It was a moment in New York that captured the world’s attention, created some of the biggest stars and then went down in history like a supernova.

And the official trailer…