Writer-director Jordan Firstman‘s very cool movie “Club Kid” had a red carpet premiere in NYC last week — and the after-party was appropriately at one of the city’s foremost underground music spots.
The Lower East Side’s Ukrainian National Home was turned into “Club Labor,” the fictional setting of Firstman’s film, for the night.
Bands that famously played the downtown space in the ’80s included New Order (soon after morphing from Joy Division following singer Ian Curtis’ death), The Misfits, Phish, Blues Traveler, Gogol Bordello and more.
“Club Kid” is out this weekend. The director (center) is pictured being interviewed with Cara Delevingne (right). BFA.com / BACKGRID
The space has also hosted tributes to David Mancuso’s legendary underground “Loft” parties — the private raves the DJ started at his Broadway home in 1970.
Guests at the “Club Kid” bash supped on “pierogies, stuffed cabbage and fries, and drank pineapple-jalapeño cocktails,” a guest said, while DJ Bearcat curated the playlist.
A huge disco ball and silver tinsel hung from the ceiling, and the dance floor was covered with hopscotch panels.
The party was also a celebration for “Club Kid’s” two Gotham nominations as awards season gets underway. The film, which debuted in Cannes and was bought by A24, is getting major Oscar buzz.
The space has also hosted tributes to David Mancuso’s legendary underground “Loft” parties. Getty Images
Firstman and his film’s young co-star Reggie Absolom, 12, “sat at a piano and sang ‘Thoroughfare’ by Ethel Cain, which Firstman has said is his favorite song,” a spy said. (The film stars Firstman as a hard-partying gay club promoter whose world is upended by the arrival of a 10-year-old son he never knew existed.)
The movie has been on the festival circuit and is considered to be an Oscar contender. BFA.com / BACKGRID
Attendees included a mix of stars, insiders and influencers such as Cara Delevingne, Colleen Camp, Chloë Sevigny, Kareem Rahma of “Subway Takes,” Joey King, Bob Balaban, Benito Skinner, Francesa Scorsese, Dan Rosen and Brian Park of the “Middlebrow Podcast,” Hunter Harris and Peyton Dix of the “Lemme Say This” podcast from Higher Ground, “Recess Therapy” creator Julian Shapiro-Barnum, and many more.
T-shirts with signature lines from the movie were handed out.
Delevingne was among the red carpet VIPs. BFA.com / BACKGRID
The film, which opens Nov. 6, previously played the Toronto International Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, the Hamptons International Film Festival, the Chicago Film Festival and more.
Awards types point out, “If ‘Club Kid’ goes the distance and gets a Best Picture nomination, Firstman will be the first debut director and sole writer and actor to earn a Best Picture nom since Orson Welles!”