By Bille Jam – NewYork Post
It was only 31 years ago that Gary Weis filmed his movie on South Bronx gang culture, 80 Blocks From Tiffany’s, but it seems like an eternity. “It was a whole different time and place. It was kind of like Dresden when I filmed there,” the director now says of the rubble-strewn, bombed-outlooking borough where he shot his gripping, gritty documentary in the summer of 1979.
It was Koch-era New York when the South Bronx, one of the poorest areas in the nation, was such a rundown destitute place that both Presidents Carter and Reagan traveled there for photo ops to exemplify the most striking symbol they could find of urban decay in America. It was also the time and place when the subways were covered in graffiti and when a new music and culture called hip-hop was taking root in the “Boogie Down” Bronx. [Read More]