“What is keeping you alive?” Legendary NYC artist Dash Snow is looking for an answer. What he is unable to articulate is all too clear to those who knew and loved the mischievous rebel; His love for the arts, his relationships with friends, and his dedication to the city he grew up in, NYC, all contributed to why Snow woke up day after day until one day it was no longer enough. As documented in director Cheryl Dunn’s memoir, Moments Like This Never Last, audiences get an intimate glimpse into the personal life of another artist who left too early.
Born Dashiell Alexander Whitney Snow, Dash Snow had always turned down the inherent privilege that came with being born into a wealthy family. He had nothing against his parents, he wanted to succeed the old-fashioned way: through hard work and stupid luck. Dash was a true hard-hitting school student who spent his life doing stupid things with his equally filthy friends on the streets of New York City and creating magic on his way.
He always carried a Polaroid camera, and these images became Dash’s legacy. The energy of 2000s NYC – pre-Internet – is captured with such tangible energy, and Cheryl Dunn does an excellent job of bringing Dash’s spirit through his photos, home videos, and interviews with friends and co-workers such as Ryan McGinley and Larry Clark (Kids).
Unfortunately, there was a stronger love for his girlfriend Jade Berreau and her little daughter Secret that overtook his passion for creating art and staying sober, and that was drugs. There is an unspoken pressure in the art world that to be successful one has to “be crazy and do a lot of drugs”. Heroin didn’t get widespread in Dash’s life until he got some craze for his name and that was what killed him in an East Village hotel room at the age of 27.
Dash Snow was a charismatic, intricate, and incredibly talented character who many compared to Basquiat. His signature style of politically charged graffiti and sexually explicit photos (sniffing coke from an erect penis is one of its most notorious) cemented him as a legendary fixture on the post-punk revival art scene.
Moments Like This Never Last pays homage to the fast-paced live lifestyle that Dash has embraced. Similarly, Cheryl Dunn’s portrayal is hard love work that makes us feel like we know him personally too. The film, made in collaboration with the VICE studios, also includes music by LCD Soundsystem, Nick Cave with Grinderman, Cat Power, with original music by Brian DeGraw.
Distributed by Utopia Media. Opening this Friday in the Lämmle cinemas and on VOD.
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