Film chronicles a Detroit artist’s attempt to ‘make it’
New York City’s downtown art and music scene of the 1980s was a launching pad for several future icons, from Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring to Michigan’s own Madonna.
Artist Edward Brezinski, a Detroit transplant to the gritty East Village of that era, failed to reach those heights, but he made an impression on his peers. His life in an unforgettable time and place is the subject of a documentary that screens Wednesday night at the Scarab Club — the historic gallery, studio space and nonprofit membership group near the Detroit Institute of Arts.
“Make Me Famous” is described as a dishy, irresistible look at Brezinski’s attempt to “make it” during “the scuzzy glory days of Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the 1970s and ’80s” (as the Guardian’s review so evocatively captures it).
The film was made by the husband-and-wife team of director Brian Vincent and producer Heather Spore. It is being presented by Cinema Detroit in partnership with the Scarab Club.
Cinema Detroit founder and programmer Paula Guthat said she was drawn to “Make Me Famous” because it’s the story of a Detroiter who was part of an influential scene that “shows the joy and pain of the art world.”
In an email, Guthat told the Free Press: “Something I’ve always wondered about is why some artists and artworks, whether it’s fine arts, performing arts, music, or film, become popular and lucrative, and others don’t, and that’s something this doc explores through the lens of Edward Brezinski’s life. Plus getting a bunch of insiders to spill the tea is always irresistible.”
A neo-Expressionist painter, Brezinski is portrayed here as charismatic and creative, but also volatile, outspoken, self-promoting and self-sabotaging. One of the legendary tales about him is the time he ate a doughnut that was part of another artist’s conceptual piece at a gallery.
The documentary, filmed partly in Detroit, includes interviews with well-known veterans of the ’80s East Village like actor Eric Bogosian, members of Brezinski’s family, archival footage and a wealth of photos to chronicle Brezinski. It even explores his death in Cannes in 2007 and rumors that it was faked.
“Make Me Famous” was shown earlier this year as part of the Freep Film Festival.