Amos Poe, the influential New York director and screenwriter who helped document and shape the city’s downtown punk movement and the No Wave cinema of the late 1970s and early 1980s, has died at the age of 76, his family said on Thursday.
Poe passed away after battling an aggressive cancer, according to posts by his wife, Claudia Summers, and daughter, Emily Poe, on social media. He was surrounded by family at the time of his death, News.Azreports, citing foreign media.
A central figure in New York’s experimental film scene, Poe was known for his raw, low-budget approach that emphasized inspiration and urgency over polish—an ethos that helped define No Wave cinema and influence generations of independent filmmakers.
Among his most notable works are The Blank Generation, The Foreigner, Unmade Beds, and Subway Riders, films that captured the energy of the city’s punk explosion and its creative underground. Working alongside contemporaries such as Jim Jarmusch, Abel Ferrara, and Vivienne Dick, Poe became a fixture of downtown culture and a chronicler of its rebellious spirit.
In a 2011 interview, Poe described the movement’s philosophy as one driven by conviction rather than credentials, arguing that passion and commitment mattered more than traditional filmmaking rules.
Tributes poured in from across the film and music communities. Janus Films honored him with a black-and-white portrait captioned, “Farewell Amos, Prince of New York.” Fellow filmmakers and actors also shared condolences, citing Poe as a key influence on independent cinema.
Amos Poe is remembered as a pioneering voice of New York’s punk-era filmmaking—one whose work preserved a defining moment in the city’s cultural history.
