Film Forum

THE DEADLY ART OF SURVIVAL

(1979, Charlie Ahearn) Black belt teacher Nathan Ingram stars in Ahearn’s Super — duper low budget — 8 ghetto disco chopsocky, The Deadly Art of Survival, a written-on-the-fly ridiculously improbable (yet lovable) cut ‘n’ paste of a now-totally vanished Lower East Side. With an evil karate school called Handsome Harry’s Disco Dojo (its slogan: “Martial Arts With Style”!), the zaniest sex scene of any film — in any gauge — south of 14th St., and two ninjas crawling around at a house party, there’s a trove of quirky shots by Ahearn and artist Beth B.: high-rise rooftops overlooking the FDR Drive, a Brooklyn Bridge bowed through a fish-eye lens, a schizo handheld fight scene and at least one scene from the POV of a cat! Shot on weekends over a year and half (1977-78) in the Smith Projects, with most of the film’s budget going to “buying pizza for the kids,” it features a cameo by artist Kiki Smith and a freshly painted Howard the Duck graf mural by LEE. Digital. Approx. 76 min.

NEW YORK CITY HIP HOP CONVENTION

(1980, Charlie Ahearn) From hip hop chronicler Ahearn, quite possibly the first-ever video document of hip hop music. Digital. Approx. 15 min.