A feature-length documentary exploring the life and legacy of Jean-Michel Basquiat is set to arrive on Netflix next month. Described by the streaming platform as “a reclamation of what has been lost in the legacy of a globally renowned artist”, it will feature never-before-seen artworks, rare archival footage and interviews with the artist’s family.
The eponymous film is both the first to have been approved by Basquiat’s estate, and the first produced in close collaboration with its co-administrators, the artist’s sisters. It is also the first documentary about the Afro-Latino artist to be directed by a person of colour.
All too easily summarised as meteoric and turbulent, Basquiat’s career saw him transition from local graffiti star to contemporary art prodigy in the space of a decade—making his life, by any measure, a fitting subject for the screen.
Indeed, there is no shortage of treatments of the life of the artist. Two biopics are currently in the works: Samo Lives, about Basquiat’s relationship with Andy Warhol, is due for release at the end of the year, and Jean, which is set to star American rapper Kid Cudi, will begin filming in 2027.
As Jean-Michel Basquiat’s co-directors Quinn Whitney Wilson and Viridiana Lieberman, editor of the Oscar-nominated documentary The Perfect Neighbor, pointed out: “We see his art everywhere, from the most historical museums to the clothing moving through the streets.
“Yet the myth and the man are not one and the same, and across the decades ‘Basquiat’ has become a moniker that doesn’t capture the entire person. His origins have hardened into an ever-growing mythology, and it’s long overdue to meet him in all the multifaceted and powerful ways he moved through this world.”
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This latest Basquiat production, touted as “the only authorised look into the life of an icon”, suggests that, despite the hype surrounding the artist, there may indeed still be much to discover.
Coupled with previously unseen artworks and archival photographs, recollections from those closest to the late star aim to move beyond the often-recounted narrative of Basquiat’s extraordinary career and get closer to the person behind the fame.
In a statement, the artist’s sisters, Jeanine Heriveaux and Lisane Basquiat, said that they “are proud to see Jean-Michel’s full humanity brought to light with such care, intention, and respect”.
Following a string of screenings, including at the Camden International Film Festival, Globedocs Film Festival and Virginia Film Festival, the documentary was awarded Best Editing in a Documentary Feature prize at the Tribeca Festival, where it premiered earlier this summer.
On 11 December, it will be released on Netflix, where the “global reach”, as the directors put it, “matches” that of the documentary’s legendary subject.
