Series Site
Michael Blackwood directed and produced over 150 films beginning in the 1960s and continuing through the 2010s, while his brother Christian directed and produced around 50 additional films himself. The largest and most well known portions of both bodies of work focused on the artist, including dozens of profiles with painters, musicians, dancers, and other artists, as well as surveys of contemporary cultural movements such as postmodern architecture, jazz, abstract expressionism, modern dance, modern sculpture, and pop art. In 1966, Michael Blackwood created Blackwood Productions with a commitment “to making films about art, music, and the cultural landscape in New York City,” but went on to produce films around the world. Christian Blackwood, Michael’s younger brother by eight years, made films alongside his brother for many years before venturing out on his own.
While most of the Blackwoods’ films remain underseen, the four films in this series about New York have never before screened theatrically in the city that inspired them. Each is unique in style – experimental, vérité, essay film, “expository” – but they are all inherently city films. They were made at three major turning points in New York City’s turbulent twentieth century: the dawn of the 60s, the onset of the 70s, and the watershed of the mid 1980s. These four films highlight the Blackwoods’ love for the city and its people and are full of new views of our great, messy, corrupt, beloved city.