Austin Film Festival Preview: Downtown Calling

Though still considered something of a force in terms of culture and energy, once upon a time in the late 1970s, New York City was the true epicenter of all things gritty, wild and revolutionary in the realm of music, art and fashion. That’s according to the AFF Documentary Feature Downtown Calling, which focuses on a few transformative years in one of the world’s liveliest cities.

Narrated by Debbie Harry and featuring interviews with groundbreaking DJs, musicians and artists including Fab 5 Freddy and Cynthia Sley, this doc captures the electricity created within a few square blocks during a time of financial ruin and boundless artistic inspiration. From the serious graffiti movement to the all-night dance parties at the Mudd Club (the new wave counterpart to glam Studio 54), the city fostered an anything-goes atmosphere that laid the groundwork for future generations of DIY hip-hop artists, visual inventors and anti-establishment punks of all variety.

The original New York scenesters lament the fact that government intervention (namely mayoral Disney-fication of the urban landscape and reduced arts funding) has resulted in watered-down neighborhoods and a scarcity of new art movements, but director Shan Nicholson’s examination of a bygone era hints that, though times have changed, much remains of this colorful and frenetic historical period.

Downtown Calling appears as part of the Documentary Feature Competition at the Austin Film Festival. The full AFF schedule can be seen here.