For Real. Instead of depicting Basquiat’s story as an isolated tragedy, Director Sara Driver diligently addresses the circumstances and environment that the Artist’s life was lent to. No debating his greatness, Boom for Real takes on Jean-Michel as a feeling and thinking human being. One who interacted and lived his life with intention. Focused on the accounts of friends and contemporaries, the viewer gains perspective and insight to some of the intricate parts behind the Artist so many have come to love. The Soho art scene, the popular clubs, the music culture — his fellow artists reconstruct a wild and sometimes crowded portrait while managing to place Basquiat neatly within it. Fab 5 Freddy, Al Diaz, and Lee Quinones are just a few of the remaining staples of that period who appear on-screen.
For 78 mins, both you and Basquiat watch from afar; you through the silver screen and him through wrinkles in time. You actually rarely get to hear him speak during the documentary. It’s almost as if the very words that his peers speak are forming the images of him. Throughout the film, he flips on and off of the screen. Sometimes he’s a still close-up while other times it’s his full body in reverse motion. This allows him to feel to the viewer, at once, both omnipresent and imaginary. Perhaps this powerfully alludes to the artist’s eternal presence in the art world; Lord over the renegades and disruptors yet to come. As opposed to allowing Basquiat to speak for himself, Boom for Real bestows upon those who were akin to his flame the task of reconstructing his essence. He, young, beautiful, and full of potential. Perhaps they even succeed in conjuring his very existence, because by the end of the documentary you will feel as though he is someone you have sat with, hungered with, and grown with. Not only as if you have known him, but as though you also lived through and were shaped by that time and era.
If you are looking for fundamentals such as the likes of family life etc, you will have better luck digging through public record. Appropriate, seeing as how Boom for Real addresses the artist’s teenage years, for most of which he was homeless on the city streets. For a feast of form figuratively following function, allow the film to take you to the very streets and people that shaped his formative teenage years. The years that led to him being the Basquiat that is written in stone on our hearts.
More information about the film can be found here.
None other than Being Mary Jane herself; the grossly talented and radiant bombshell, Ms. Gabrielle Union’s new book, 
Of all of these beautiful places decimated by the storm, Barbuda and Anguilla were the hardest hit. To give you an idea of the destruction, the hurricane was recorded at 348 miles wide – the island of Barbuda is a mere 62 square miles. Declared uninhabitable, evacuation of all residents to its sister island of Antigua was the only option. With 70% of evacuees having been taken into homes of Antiguan citizens, the other 30% remain in emergency evacuation centers such as Antigua’s sports stadium, converted nursing homes, and the like. The people of the island of Anguilla were not so lucky as to have a place and the means to leave. The first delivery of aid from the island’s parent government, The UK, arrived SIX DAYS after the storm passed. There is no running water, barely any electricity; many of the residents are without supplies to repair their damaged homes or even food. With Tourism providing over 60% of the Islands GDP, there is very little chance of it being able to rehabilitate on its own. The Four Seasons resort, which is the Island’s largest private employer, has stated that it will take at least 6 months to reopen. All things considered, these countries need more than the hope that the world will come to their aid; they need the PROOF.
The Twenty-First Century has indeed been full of trying times. Despite tons of intentional division and propaganda imagery, there has also been a banding together and a notion that we, as a people, must foster our own growth and progression. It is said that in the midst of turmoil, the air is ripe for the likes of a prophet; one who can ingest the struggle and obstacles of the time, and in return paint a portrait of a prosperous future. It is no easy task to be able to rise from police brutality, genocide and institutionalized racism, while still being able to see Nirvana and rouse others to do so as well. Insert: Messiah Ramkissoon.