An investigation into the life and death(?) of Detroit-born artist, Edward Brezinski, a charismatic Lower East Side painter on the fringe of success, who thwarted his career with antics that roiled NYC’s art elite. “Make Me Famous” is a documentary that explores the life of an almost-legend – sneered at by some contemporaries, admired by others – as a springboard for a dive into a period in New York’s cultural history when “starving artists” reset the creative bar. Fellow aspiring artists and gallerists created the beginnings of a “scene” that made some rich and famous, and left others behind. Through interviews, archival footage and hundreds of images – much that have never before been seen – “Make Me Famous” examines some of these intangibles through the recollections of some of the NYC Downtown scene’s most colorful figures. Michigan premiere.

AFTER THE FILM: Kathy Kieliszewski, Freep Film Festival artistic director, talks with filmmakers Brian Vincent and Heather Spore.