Make Me Famous

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Make Me Famous

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1h 33m

Documentary

Biography

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41 Reviews

97%

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100+ Ratings

This documentary brings forward a popular era while unearthing many artists, photographers, and stories that you may not already know. The 1980s art scene is famous for break-out artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, but there were many other artists who made a powerful impact. Make Me Famous is the story of the Lower East Side art movement through an unknown artist, fully allowing the creativity itself to take centerstage. Set during arguably the last great art explosion in American history, Make Me Famous tells the story of unknown painter, Edward Brezinski in his quest for fame. Our film gives an intimate portrait of what it was like to be an artist in N.Y.C. in the 1980s. It delves into the spirit of the artists themselves, what drove their generation and what they were up against. Make Me Famous follows the talented Edward Brezinski as he famously eats a Donut from a Robert Gober sculpture at the Paula Cooper Gallery and all that follows. Through a real time investigation in the South of France, we unearth the truth about what happened to Brezinski and his mysterious death in the Côte d'Azur.

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Critics Consensus

Make Me Famous brings notoriety to its subject and his peers while delivering a gritty time capsule of New York City's art scene before it was gentrified.

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Noah Berlatsky

Observer

Sep 4, 2025

Make Me Famous is a sad film because Brezinski wanted to be famous and was not. It’s an enraging film because it shows the extent to which we devalue and despise the arts and all the non-famous people who create them.

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Kimberley Jones

Austin Chronicle

Apr 7, 2025

Juicy archival footage of stylish scenemakers and art shows held in tenement slums is paired with dishy interviews with Brezinski’s contemporaries.

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Adam Graham

Detroit News

Sep 27, 2023

B-

The conditions of life — "everyone was living in garbage," says one of Brezinski's contemporaries — are romanticized in director Brian Vincent's portrait of an artist living on the edge.

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Sarah Vincent

Sarah G Vincent Views

May 25, 2026

It is not just a good film. It is a great model of how art, filmmaking and real relationships can make history and community without the conventional ties of blood.

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Alex Valencia

Q+ Magazine

May 4, 2026

In telling his story, in giving context to his work and his world, 'Make Me Famous' grants Brezinski a kind of posthumous recognition he spent his life chasing. And maybe that’s the film’s most poignant takeaway.

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Heidi Krull

MovieJawn

Mar 3, 2026

Make Me Famous takes the audience on a hilarious, tragic, and special journey highlighting the trials Edward Brezinski experienced as an artist in poverty.

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Mary Kay Yezerski

Aug 16, 2023

This film was a fantastic look into the world of the Downtown art scene in the 80s. The film brought a certain lightness to an era that sometimes can come across a bit serious. The interviews of the supporting cast added to the levity in telling the stories of the time. Its amazing that they remember anything with all the drugs and drinking. Very well documented. The filmmakers were obviously personally interested in this story and it shows on the screen.

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TONY A

Aug 12, 2023

An artist friend told me about this film which he thought I may like since I lived in lower Manhattan during the period the film explored. He was absolutely right. It's a fascinating and well crafted documentary film that uses the obscure East Village 80's artist's, Edward Brezinski, quest for fame and money to tell the bigger story of the art culture and scene at time that produced the big names, Haring, Basquiat etc., and the complex ambitious drive for success and recognition and how that is defined and played out amongst a fascinating group of fringe artists living amongst the squalor of the pre-gentrified and fashionable East Village. Using interviews with the living key players of the period's art scene, video footage of art events, and photographs, the film creates a cinematic experience for those who remember that time and for those curious to "retro see" what it was like, while also solving the mystery of who was Edward Brezinski and what happened to him.

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Colleen

Jul 16, 2023

Such a great story, and so well told!! Loved everything about this depiction of an incredibly special time in NYC!!

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elaine ellman

Jul 16, 2023

Terrific doc with visuals and editing providing the recognizable art world atmosphere of the time interesting for those who were there in the '80s and for those who missed out.

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Pat D

Jul 2, 2023

The story that this documentary told took us back in time to a New York, that no longer exists. In fact, it all felt much more like a narrative story than documentary Never dull or boring, and the place that Edward Brezinski now holds in modern art has context and feels much richer today.

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Ren NYC

Jul 2, 2023

Brian Vincent and Heather Spore take us back to a different time in the New York art scene. The grit of NYC in the 80s was part of the times. Artist did their thing without influencers or social media but then again they were the original influencers and social media artist. As an artist myself, the desire for fame lingers in the back of my mind. Always out of reach. Trying to find a way. A well done documentary that might awaken your artistic soul.

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Brian Vincent

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Edward Brezinski

Self

David McDermott

Self

James Romberger

Self

Marguerite Van Cook

Self

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Make Me Famous: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

This documentary brings forward a popular era while unearthing many artists, photographers, and stories that you may not already know. The 1980s art scene is famous for break-out artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, but there were many other artists who made a powerful impact. Make Me Famous is the story of the Lower East Side art movement through an unknown artist, fully allowing the creativity itself to take centerstage. Set during arguably the last great art explosion in American history, Make Me Famous tells the story of unknown painter, Edward Brezinski in his quest for fame. Our film gives an intimate portrait of what it was like to be an artist in N.Y.C. in the 1980s. It delves into the spirit of the artists themselves, what drove their generation and what they were up against. Make Me Famous follows the talented Edward Brezinski as he famously eats a Donut from a Robert Gober sculpture at the Paula Cooper Gallery and all that follows. Through a real time investigation in the South of France, we unearth the truth about what happened to Brezinski and his mysterious death in the Côte d'Azur.

Director: Brian Vincent
Producer: Heather Spore, Brian Vincent
Distributor: Red Splat Productions
Genre: Documentary, Biography
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 22, 2023, Limited
Runtime: 1h 33m

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