Young Turks

From 1977 to 1981, multimedia artist Stephen Seemayer shot a Super-8mm movie of his creative friends in their unnatural habitat: the deserted industrial and commercial buildings of Downtown Los Angeles. His camera captured them at work and at play, discussing art and what it meant to share the mean streets with those less fortunate. A rough cut of ‘Young Turks’ was screened in 1981 and never seen again. Newly digitized and fully reedited with additional footage, the film is a remarkable document of L.A.’s urban core at a crossroads… when rent was cheap and ‘loft living’ was more than just an advertising slogan.