They're Making A Movie About The Paradise Garage

The globally influential ’80s New York discotheque is the subject of a new movie.

Though it closed in 1987, New York’s Paradise Garage night club has left a lasting impression on dance music that can still be felt today. Along with the Warehouse in Chicago and Zanzibar in New Jersey, the Garage was a place where disco was refashioned into what would later become known as house. At the center of it all was DJ Larry Levan, a selector whose narrative style of DJing and attention to sonic detail has made him a mythologically fetishized figure long after his death. As old heads will tell you, the Garage was a special place that was everything a club should be: a space of difference, freedom and expression.

Now, this legacy is being turned into a feature length film. The film was written and directed by Jonathan Ullman who previously directed a mini-documentary about Larry Levan, which you can watch above. Levan will be played by The Last Panther actor Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. As FACT reports, “Former club DJs and staffers have been consulted for the film, including original Garage DJ David DePino, who is credited for the film’s story. No word yet on who plays the club’s sole proprietor Michael Brody, but the website hints the film will also focus on him.”

Listen to 10 Finn Johannsen-certfied garage house gems that everyone needs to own here. For more New York disco nostalgia, check out this documentary about a similarly influential club called The Gallery.