P·P·O·W is pleased to debut a film by Charlie Ahearn at the 2015 Moving Image Art Fair.  

Charlie Ahearn (b. 1951) is an American filmmaker, photographer, author and radio host.  He first moved to New York City in 1973 to attend the Whitney Museum’s Studio program and soon found himself embedded in the culture of the Lower East Side; participating in the artist’s group Colab, an alternative to the traditional gallery model which staged the now historical “Times Square Show,” 1980 that included street art. Ahearn went on to write, film and direct the hip-hop cult classic Wild Style, 1983 featuring Fab Five Freddy, Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink, the Rock Steady Crew, The Cold Crush Brothers, Queen Lisa Lee of Zulu Nation, Grandmaster Flash and Zephyr.  Ahearn also produced a series of Artist Portrait Videos featuring Martin Wong, Kiki Smith, John Ahearn, Jane Dickson, Leon Golub, Tom Otterness and recently on street photographer, Jamel Shabazz. Ahearn has been directing a series of short Hip Hop movies highlighting changes in the culture seen in recent MC'ing, DJ'ing, Bboying and subway graffiti. 

The film on view, Dirt Style, 2014 represents what Ahearn calls a “pure moment” when a young Parisian graffiti artist takes Ahearn on a mission to hit the underground Metro. This film is a modern flashback to the grit, determination and fearlessness of the early graffiti writers featured in Wild Style. Coinciding with Moving Image, Charlie Ahearn will be hosting screening of his recent hip hop related musical shorts on March 4th at the Wythe Hotel, in Williamsburg, in collaboration with Selections + Selectors film series.