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paddywhoo
Reviews
The Brezinski Project (2021)
Make Me Famous" just might...
Who knew the artist, Edward Brezinski? If your answer is no one, you're close. A dedicated young artist who escaped an alcoholic father in Detroit, trained at the renowned San Francisco Art Institute before moving to a 6th floor apartment/studio/dive above a squalorous street scene in New York City, his tale is told by his fiercely talented and ambitious artist contemporaries who were part of the vibrant and sometimes more than a little sordid art scene with the not-so-usual starving, mostly gay, men at the very beginnings of the HIV epidemic. From their conversations emerges the complex support and love mixed with envy and resentment in a profession where the who you know and where you happen to be as much as who are the most gifted often determines the winners and the forgotten.
Brezinski held shows for both himself and his fellow artists at his 6th floor walkup; visitors had to step over the bodies of the drunks who had not quite made it to the flophouse across the street. This generosity was remembered and appreciated in the interviews. Brezinski was a budding alcoholic whose obnoxious acting out at his friends' openings was also remembered. Those speaking were all ravaged survivors, not only of the competitive cauldron of the New York art scene that was on the verge of being engulfed by vulture capitalism, but of the HIV firestorm that was decimating the gay community; the grief and anger (Reagan was officially and actively ignoring the growing epidemic) is present in their speaking.
There's so much more of this rich story that I've only touched on. You would not suspect that the two New York Broadway veteran actors who produced/directed/edited/etc. Are first-time film makers. The production is rich, beautiful and seamless, and the arc of storytelling is continuously engrossing and compelling.
Patrick O'Connor.