SAVING STYLE WARS

In the early 1980s, Mayor Koch, enraged about graffiti, began buffing the city’s colorful, painted trains. In the end, he may have succeeded, but not before Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant captured the magnificent tidal wave of graffiti in their pioneering documentary, Style Wars. The film is seen around the world as an important footnote in hip hop culture and New York City history. Today, that history, too, is threatened. The original footage is damaged and fading. A new kind of buffing is taking place – a “celluloid buff” – that threatens to eradicate the record of the first brave and indomitable writers who took the world by storm.

Public Art Films is currently on a fund-raising mission to restore the original print, and to create a new high definition master which will preserve the record of the first painted trains to its original vivid colors.

So far The Style Wars Restoration Fund has raised $19,883.20 of their goal of $500,000. Find out more about the film and how to donate here.

These are some of the great pieces being auctioned for The Style Wars Restoration Fund. Find out more about the auction and the pieces above here.