Basquiat Boom reaches Miami Beach

The documentary Boom for Real: the Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat is due to be screened at Miami Beach’s Colony Theatre tonight (8.30pm) as part of the Art Basel in Miami Beach film programme. It explores how the artist was embedded in the New York underground scene between 1978 and 1981, and features previously unseen works, photographs and writings from the collection of Basquiat’s one-time lover, Alexis Adler. The film’s director, Sara Driver, who was also active in that gritty scene, calls it “a personal essay about a very particular moment in New York City”. Although dizzying auction results and popular mythology always threaten to overwhelm Basquiat, Driver says: “Jean-Michel is very human in our film.”