It was February 16, 1990, when one of the most influential and emblematic contemporary artists died prematurely, ripped from life by AIDS. This year, on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of Keith Haring‘s death, the BBC has produced a film that retraces the artist’s story. 

Titled Keith Haring: Street Art Boy, the film recounts in just under an hour and a half some of the most emblematic episodes and encounters in Haring’s life. The works are interwoven with images, interviews with Keith himself and unpublished footage from the archives of the Haring Foundation and made available to the BBC. 

Through the artist’s life is also told the New York of the 80s and 90s, the art and creativity that exploded at every corner, but also AIDS and fear. 

Keith Haring: Street Art Boy is directed by Ben Anthony and was broadcast for the first time on the BBC Two channel on July 4th, but you can watch it again on the BBC streaming site, iPlayer. 

This fascinating and compelling film – told using previously unheard interviews with Haring, which form the narrative of the documentary – is the definitive story of the artist in his own words.