Wild Style. 1983. Directed by Charlie Ahearn

Film

No upcoming events

Wild Style. 1983. USA. Directed by Charlie Ahearn. Image courtesy of Music Box Films

Wild Style. 1983. USA. Directed by Charlie Ahearn. With Lee Quinones, Patti Astor, Lady Pink, Fab 5 Freddy. 35mm. 82 min.

Set against the backdrop of the South Bronx in the 1980s, Wild Style brought Downtown cool kids all the way up for a cross-borough romp through a city on the cusp of a new day. A touchstone for hip-hop cinema, Wild Style helped introduce the nation to the beat that was taking over the Bronx and would eventually become a global cultural force. Following a crew of scrappy graffiti writers as they tag the city, Ahearn captures a creative wellspring that would go on to inspire generations. Journalist Virginia (Patti Astor) meets Zoro (Lee Quiñones) whose legendary talents with a spray can form the backbone of the film. Wild Style takes viewers on a journey through breaking, MCing, DJing, and, of course, graffiti writing with pioneers like Fab 5 Freddy and Grandmaster Flash at center stage.

This film accompanies New York Film and Video: No Wave–Transgressive.

Past events

Thu, Dec 28, 2017, 5:00 p.m.

MoMA, Floor T2, Theater 2

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2
Fri, Dec 22, 2017, 7:00 p.m.

Post-screening discussion with Charlie Ahearn

MoMA, Floor T2, Theater 2

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2

Licensing

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).

MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit https://www.moma.org/research/circulating-film.

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].