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NELSON SULLIVAN biography Beyond the confines of downtown New York Nelson Sullivan wasn't particularly famous, but within its boundaries (from 14th Street to Houston Street and from 5th Avenue to Avenue D) everyone knew Nelson because almost every night he was going out and documenting his surroundings. During the last ten years of his life he shot over 1800 hours of tape, capturing himself and his friends in the glossy facade of Manhattan's Downtown life that has been perpetuated in urban legend. Sullivan chronicled the rise and fall of many of his friends and peers including Michael Musto, RuPaul, Dean Johnson, Deee-lite, Ethyl Eichelberger, Sylvia Miles, Michael Alig and countless other denizens of a demimonde being ravaged by AIDS, heroin, and anomie. Nelson himself died tragically from a heart attack on July 4, 1989- only three days after quitting his full time to so that he could produce his own cable television show of his footage. Originally from a grand old family in the deep south, Nelson moved to downtown New York in the early seventies to escape the prejudice and claustrophobia of small town life. As a classical pianist and composer, he also came to New York to make it. But no sooner had he arrived than he noticed that Downtown Manhattan was the mecca where everyone came to make it - not just from all over the country but also from all over the world; 'If I can make it here, I'll make it anywhere' as Frank Sinatra sings in 'New York, New York'. a portrait of downtown Nelson knew, because he was witness to it, that Downtown was a new society being born. Downtown is where it all began - 'It' being the idea of everyone being famous for fifteen minutes. He saw in Warhol's Factory, with its freaks, parasites, and their limitless capacity both for self-invention and self-destruction, the beginnings of Downtown. It wasn't just another bohemia, but a post-pop society driven and unified by the desire for fame. In documenting this birth he created a video equivalent of Vasari's 'Lives of the Artists', especially valuable given the w)_$A{qZ"C(X 5`N7K· ER Q4<8Wq3gt8,PMw*E !.#vFm
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