Downtown Locals is a documentary on the underground, literally. A pair of filmmakers took a look at what was happening in art, performance and music under street level. What they found were a group of artists expressing themselves and finding out the public spaces were getting a bit more competitive.
The six New York City subway buskers include "the Mercury Man, aka John Del Signore, who stands silver and motionless for hours at a time; Ron, a guitarist from Baltimore who once scored a record contract from CBS records; Helen, a Vassar graduate in her forties who reinvents herself as an accordion-playing chanteuse; and Julio, a Colombian immigrant who dances with a life-sized doll attached to his shoes."
The movie follows their days, and finds out what they do after they're done performing, as well as how they deal with the increasingly regulated underground. Of note, Mercury Man John Del Signore will start covering Theater this week on Gothamist. So stay tuned for that!
The film premieres in New York this month, at the Pioneer Theater on September 12th and September 15th as a part of the Rooftop Film Festival. Check out the trailer up top.
