Stations of the Elevated
Oct 21, 2014
(Manfred Kirchheimer, United States, 1981, DCP, 45 min)
New restoration!
Sponsored by KPLU 88.5!
Among the first-ever documentations of graffiti on film, Stations of the Elevated weaves together vivid images of elevated subway trains crisscrossing New York City's gritty urban landscape. With a complex soundtrack that combines the ambient sounds of the city with the music of Charles Mingus and Aretha Franklin, Stations of the Elevated captures the height of the 1970s graffiti movement in New York, featuring the work of early legends including Lee, Fab 5 Freddy, Shadow, Daze, Kase, Butch, Blade, Slave, 12 T2B, Ree, and Pusher.
In a period when the graffiti covering New York’s subway system was largely dismissed as vandalism, Kirchheimer explored graffiti as a form of self-expression. The film forces audiences to ask: “What is urban art, and what role does it play in the daily life of a city?”
Stations of the Elevated premiered at the 1981 New York Film Festival, but, lacking appropriate music licenses, was never theatrically released in the United States. In the 30 years since its completion it has been rarely screened, developing a cult amongst cinephiles, jazz, and graffiti-lovers. Part of our series Earshot Jazz Films.