HOMETOWN BLUES - CAPTURED

A book I am reading at the moment is called "Captured - a film/video history of the lower east side". Within are many essays written by people who were "there"; the Lower East Side of Manhattan Island, NYC, back in the 1970s and 1980s during the "No Wave" and "Cinema of Transgression" film movements. Some names might be recognizable to you, if you are into those 'schools': Nick Zedd, Richard Kern, Jim Jarmusch, Steve Buscemi, Amos Poe, and Jonas Mekas.

The chapter "Why I Left the 'Cinema of Transgression' Behind, Or Why It Left Me", was written by underground filmmaker Casandra Stark Mele. The way she opened up her article caught my attention and got me thinking before I had a chance to continue reading...

"The Bright Side

As a young woman, I fled the self-destructive atmosphere of my hometown and came to New York to attend art school."


Attending art school is not what felt provocative to me, it was this: "... I fled the self-destructive atmosphere of my hometown... "

I'm guessing this emotion or feeling is not that uncommon, especially among creative types.

Terrific book/document, by the way.

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"Captured - a film/video history of the lower east side"
Phil Hartman and Clayton Patterson; foreword by Abel Ferarra.

2005
Seven Stories Press
New York