New York City in the late 1970s was a city near bankrupt from the US economic stagnation where electricity blackouts, poverty, spiraling welfare debt and crime rates soared. However, this proved fertile ground for a flourishing community of confrontational artists, musicians and filmmakers.

Taking a punk, do-it-yourself approach, these artists picked up super 8 cameras and began to turn them on themselves and their friends. Artists such as Jim Jarmusch, Nick Zedd, Richard Kern, Lydia Lunch and Amos Poe debuted early works to an audience of their peers. Imbuing their art with a poetic anger – they carved out a nihilistic, street-level aesthetic that left an indelible mark on the art world.

Full of interviews with the major players and rarely seen footage, BLANK CITY looks at how this explosion of creativity dubbed “No Wave Cinema” and “Cinema of Transgression” has lost none of its raw power and the shock-waves still reverberate today.