Stations of the Elevated

“Lumbering, skronking, and wonderously paint-bombed, Stations of the Elevated is a proto-hip-hop bliss-out, a masterpiece of train and tag-spotting.”—Village Voice

Long regarded by film lovers and hip-hop fans as an obscure cult masterpiece, the 1981 Stations of the Elevated is finally getting a wide release in a new restoration. Dedicated to memorializing the extravagant graffiti on New York City’s MTA trains and set to music by jazz giant Charles Mingus, the film is a portrait of a bygone era and a celebration of a quintessentially urban art form and one of its most fertile moments. (45 mins., DCP) Preceded by two landmark films of NYC subways. Documentary great D. A. Pennebaker’s marvelous early short film Daybreak Express sets beautiful footage of the packed, filthy trains to Duke Ellington’s music (5 mins., 35mm) and cinematic titan Stan Brakhage’s The Wonder Ring, a commission by artist Joseph Cornell, documents the Third Avenue El before it was torn down. (6 mins., 16mm)