Blank City
Directed by Céline Danhier
***
New York City had it rough all over during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s but the hardest hit neighborhood—apart from virtually the entire Bronx, of course—had to be Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Visitors to that part of town would have been treated to such unwelcoming sights as derelict buildings, rampant crime and drug abuse. On the other hand, the sheer ugliness of the surroundings meant that rents were either dirt cheap or non-existent. That made the area a prime location for the waves of young artists that were still moving into New York even as the rest of the city’s population seemed to be looking for a way out.
