In my recent binge on documentaries, I just checked out “Jean Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child” and it’s another one worth seeing.  Here are the top reasons why-

1. The Julian Schnabel film ‘Basquiat’ is great but as a dramatization, doesn’t give you the chance to see Basquiat in the flesh.  And while Geoffrey Wright was brilliant in capturing Basquiat’s ambition and introverted personality, there’s nothing like seeing real footage where you see Basquiat’s vulnerability.  The documentary’s director, Tamra Davis was a confidante of Jean Michel and fortunately her archives of recorded conversations between them allows us a window into the real Basquiat.  It’s a gift to see him reflect so candidly on his work, his friendship with Warhol, the pain of dealing with sudden fame, being misunderstood and cut down by the ivory tower of art critics and museum curators.

2. There’s great footage from the 80s – the thriving underground art and music scene that brought about the energy that fueled Basquiat’s work.  It’s the chance to see New York pre-Starbucks and pre-gentrification which is worth the price of admission alone.

3. There’s a disturbing sense of immediacy and rawness to seeing the footage of Basquiat reacting to an interview where his work is described as ‘primal’ by an interviewer.  Basquiat asks the interviewer with a quiet sense of suspicion and vulnerability whether he’s inferring that he means primal as in the sense of ‘primate’.  And what’s upsetting is that the interviewer does not correct Basquiat’s suggestion of a racist contextualization of his work.

4.  The documentary reveals the active scene around Basquiat – his range of friendships from loyal girlfriends to celebrities to parasitic groupies.  It’s a fascinating look into the dynamics of a cultural movement and the fine line between exploitation and genuine admiration.  One so called friend, sold off Basquiat’s painting shortly after receiving it as a gift from Basquiat.  If that act wasn’t disrespectful enough, this painting was a personal expression of friendship given to him by Basquiat during his dark days when he was on the outs battling illness from heroin and making his rounds to “say goodbye” in so many ways to his old New York friends.

5.  The documentary reveals so vividly an incredible talent of our times who was revered, misunderstood, and died too soon.  It’s a painful reminder as well about the power of critics who champion (Robert Farris Thompson, Yale professor of anthropology who Basquiat felt best understood his work) and yet also tear down young artists as well (one critic interviewed at the height of Basquiat’s career noted with smug arrogance that his work was insignificant and would have little value over the years).