"Poet Diane Di Prima wrote this book for the money in 1968 but is is still an unabashed portait of Beat and queer life in the 1950's to the late 60's. It is an erotic travelogue of NY in the 60's and shines a special light on the New York Underground when being queer, feminist and an artist was still a way to be oppositional to the dominant culture."

"I have no idea if this is anything near an accurate representation of the New York punk scene at the time, because I wasn’t there. But when I saw this as a teenager I certainly thought that it was, and that I was getting a glimpse of something really special. It also introduced me to Richard Hell, the Feelies, and ESG, and you can’t say that about many—or any—other films. —Will Young"

"I also discovered A Woman Under the Influence during this time in New York, and I was so touched by it. I’ve seen it many times, but I revisited it again during the filming of Invisible Life. It’s just a really complex portrait of a character who is at once a bit out of her mind and also so affectionate. It was important for me to have my actors see that film."

"Certainly Taxi Driver would be on the list, because it’s probably the greatest character study ever put on film, with some of the most surprising twists and turns. It also has such a perfect exploration of the feelings at the time of the mid-70s. Politically and socially, it just captures that time in an amazing way — captures New York, which is my home town, in an amazing way. It’s an incredible time capsule."

"This was the book that inspired me to move from the city and live on a mountain in the middle of nowhere and everywhere. In 1932, they too moved from New York City to start living off the land deep in the green mountains of Vermont. Living off the land and in the seasons gives one a sense of honest purpose. Art, farming, poetry, architecture, carpentry, accounting, cooking have no boundaries with each other."

"It’s everything! This film also captures an exciting time in American classical ballet. It’s like it’s frozen in time, this magical period in the late ’70s and early ’80s when ballet dancers were rock stars. I loved it even more later in life because, once I moved to New York, I ended up living with Isabel Brown, whose life the story it’s loosely based on. Her daughter, Leslie, stars in the movie opposite Mikhail Baryshnikov."

"A fantastic adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s captivating Ripley books, with the action shifting to New York City and Hamburg (both filmed beautifully by Repo Man’s Robby Müller). Come for the seventies-noir setting, the art-world intrigue, the cameos from the likes of Nicholas Ray; stay for the entertaining Wenders interviews on the Criterion edition, in which he regales us with how he managed to tame both Dennis Hopper and the late, great Bruno Ganz."

"I had a group of friends who were all into rap, and we’d drive around and listen to jazzy, laid-back East Coast hip hop. If you didn’t go into New York it was boring, so we’d spend endless time driving in my friend’s car listening to Digable Planets, A Tribe Called Quest or De La Soul. I wrote an article for my high school newspaper about the hidden links between punk and rap."

"The casting in this film allows for so much nuance, from Nick Apollo Forte (who didn’t do anything else) to the borscht-belt comedians in Carnegie Deli, to all of Danny Rose’s clients, to the off-type performance from Mia Farrow as a side-piece and a mob-boss princess… They all amount to something that’s so inherently New York in a way that I hope NEVER dies. I am Danny Rose."