Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child

Director Tamra Davis offers this brilliant look at the life of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose status as a cult figure began to overshadow his neo-Expressionist output and whose friendship with Andy Warhol cemented his role in pop-culture history. Interviewees include Maripol, Julian Schnabel and Glenn O’Brien., Director Tamra Davis delves into the life of the artist whose status as a cult figure began to overshadow his neoexpressionist output, and whose friendship with Andy Warhol cemented his role in pop-culture history. In the late ’70s, a Lower East Side graffiti artist who signed his work “Samo” emerged the darling of the New York art scene. Samo’s real name was Jean-Michel Basquiat, and in just a few short years, Basquiat would be an internationally celebrated artist. But being a black artist in the 1970s wasn’t all fun and fame; despite all of his success, Basquiat found intolerance and misconceptions dogging him at every turn. In this film, Basquiat’s friend Davis uses her talents as a filmmaker to offer a better look at both the man and the iconoclast.