Netflix has released the trailer for Jean-Michel Basquiat, the first documentary officially approved by the artist’s estate, premiering globally December 11. The film made its world premiere at the 2026 Tribeca Festival, where it won Best Editing in a Documentary Feature.
Directed by Quinn Whitney Wilson, in her feature directorial debut, and Viridiana Lieberman, editor of the Oscar-nominated The Perfect Neighbor, the documentary draws on untold memories from Basquiat’s family, never-before-seen works, and rare archival imagery to move past the mythology that’s grown around him since his death from an accidental overdose at age 27 in 1988. Basquiat’s sisters, Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, who co-administer his estate, lead the film as both subjects and executive producers, offering what the official synopsis calls “an intimate and comprehensive portrait,” aiming to let Basquiat “finally guide his own story” rather than remain filtered through the fine art marketplace that’s largely defined his public image since his death.
“Jean-Michel Basquiat’s legacy is undeniable,” Wilson and Lieberman said in a statement. “We see his art everywhere, from the most historical museums to the clothing moving through the streets. Yet the myth and the man are not one and the same… it’s long overdue to meet him in all the multifaceted and powerful ways he moved through this world.” Heriveaux and Basquiat echoed that sentiment, saying they’re “deeply proud to see Jean-Michel’s full humanity brought to light with such care, intention, and respect.”
The film is a Boardwalk Pictures, Indus Valley Media, and Radiant Media Studios production, in association with Interscope Films, H.Wood Media, and Laurel Canyon Pictures. Jordan Wynn, Andrew Fried, Harlin Lawal, Lana Barkin, Dane Lillegard, Ileen Sheppard Gallagher, Will Cohen, Wilson, and David Laven produce, with Heriveaux, Lisane Basquiat, and a large group of additional executive producers, including Travis Kelce, John Janick, and Katherine L. Oliver, backing the project.
Basquiat, born in Brooklyn, rose from New York’s street art scene to international acclaim in the mid-1980s, exploring Black identity and experience through paintings including Irony of Negro Policeman, Defacement, and Hollywood Africans. His work has only grown in value and cultural reach since his death: his 1982 untitled painting sold for a record $110.5 million in 2017, at the time the highest price ever paid at auction for an American artist’s work, and his painting In This Case sold for $93.1 million in 2021.
With his own sisters now leading the first version of his story to carry the estate’s official approval, Jean-Michel Basquiat positions itself as a deliberate correction to decades of mythology built around him, told specifically by the people who knew him before the world turned him into a legend.