Jean Michel Basquiat - The radiant child

This weekend I wanted to watch something real.

I wanted to be affected by images on the screen in a way that no Hollywood movie can. I wanted to see real lives, real paths, I wanted a touch of humanity.

I started out with Waiting for Superman, which I reviewed previously. Then I came across this documentary: Jean Michel Basquiat - The Radiant Child.

My knowledge of Basquiat is tenuous at best. A few years ago I knew of him only his name. I didn't know he was dead, I didn't know he was black & I didn't know he'd died so young. Since then I've come across articles, book excerpts, interviews that reference him in some way so I eventually learned all this about him but not much more.

I went into the documentary blind as it were.



At different times during the documentary, I was jealous of this young man, then envious, then heartbroken, then proud, then impressed, then taken aback. After having seen it, I have gained an enormous amount of respect for him.

Jean Michel Basquiat had the difficult priviledge of being an artist ahead of his time and the documentary tells the story of a young boy, not quite a man, who is loved as only a celebrity can be loved, used, lonely, ambitious, insecure, vulnerable, overemotional, susceptible. An old soul who was also young at heart. A profound individual who was still growing and maturing.

As if that wasn't hard enough, about an hour in the documentary touches on what it's like to be a black celebrity. Someone who is the star of the show in one location, only to be pissed upon and hated and discriminated against for being black. A scene when a reporter is interviewing him and compares him to a wild monkey shows that even when he's being praised, there's a codicil attached. There were times watching this, when I yearned to go back in time and give him a hug and tell him that he was loved.

This documentary is a beautiful homage, a beautiful eulogy in the form of a warning about self-destruction.
It broke my heart & inspired me both.

"If you wanna talk about influence, man, then you gotta realize that influence is not simply influence. It’s simply someone’s idea going through my new mind." - Jean Michel Basquiat