Charlie Ahearn
The wild untold story of the iconic Shaw Brothers who paved the way for the boom of the Kung fu film movement, which had a huge influence on the West that still continues today.
A deep exploration into the historical, cultural, political and musical elements that created the genre, featuring present-day conversations with music legends.
A documentary on Brooklyn-born photographer Jamel Shabazz.
In the years before Ronald Reagan took office, Manhattan was in ruins. But true art has never come from comfort, and it was precisely those dire circumstances that inspired artists like Jim Jarmusch, Lizzy Borden, and Amos Poe to produce some of their best works. Taking their cues from punk rock and new wave music, these young maverick filmmakers confronted viewers with a stark reality that stood in powerful contrast to the escapist product being churned out by Hollywood.
In the late 1970s, the "greatest city in the world" was teetering on the edge of total chaos. A failed economy, crime and en mass housing corruption gave way to a city in crisis. Yet out of the economic and social strife that held the "Big Apple" hostage, a family of homegrown cultures that would forever change the world began to emerge. Downtown Calling not only documents, in detail, the evolution of New York City's fertile music and art subculture during this period, but how its collective output continues to play a prominent, driving role in the international fashion, art and music industries today.
Documents the view and action outside director Charlie Ahearn's 43rd Street apartment window from 1981 to 1983. Charlie Ahearn, whose 1983 film WILD STYLE was a cult hip hop hit, was "blessed" with a generous view of the sleeze emporiums up Eighth Avenue and down 43rd. His window provides a view into midtown New York's street brutality in those dark years before it was "cleaned up" and "Disneyfied".
This road movie explores the nature of the bond between twins by focusing on a love affair between a man and a woman, each of whom has a twin brother.
Legendary New York graffiti artist Lee Quinones plays the part of Zoro, the city's hottest and most elusive graffiti writer. The actual story of the movie concerns the tension between Zoro's passion for his art and his personal life, particularly his strained relationship with fellow artist Rose.
Real-life kung fu master Nathan Ingram stars in this gritty, low-budget martial arts epic as a local karate school owner who clashes with a gang of drug traffickers posing as the owners of a rival dojo. Director Charlie Ahearn (who helmed the landmark hip-hop film Wild Style) used the housing projects next to his New York Lower East Side apartment as his central location in this 1979 classic, shot on a vintage Super 8 camera.
Charlie Ahearn revisits the Boogie Down two decades later with Tanzanian rapper Balozi Dola in tow for a bilingual MC battle. 2005, DVCam.
