Filming Screening: bomb it & short films, music video about street art

One reason graffiti is such a volatile issue is because it touches on many fundamental questions of urban life. What constitutes public space? Who gets to decide how it will be used? Is advertising in public spaces a form of pollution?

Jon Reiss’s 2008 documentary Bomb present a wide sampling of graffiti art from around the world, and a variety of viewpoints relating to graffiti. He includes interviews with everyone from first-generation graffiti artists to academic theorists: segments shot in South Africa, Brazil, Europe and Japan are particularly useful in broadening the discussion.

The documentary is primarily composed of footage showing various graffiti artists doing their thing -- if you're into street art in the slightest you'll get a kick out of this stuff -- meshed with interview footage of notable graffiti artists like Belx2, Lady Pink, Toe, and crew TKO. We also meet Taki 183, NYC's first tagger, and Philadelphia's Cornbread, the father of the tagging movement

Contextualized as a “gateway crime”, street graffiti initiated the ongoing debate and fight for control over public space and the ensuing global proliferation of “Quality of Life” behavioral modification laws. Reiss has perfectly pitched this debate in his documentary, giving voice not only to the urban artists who protest foisted gentrification and its class-structured arguments of neutral space but the anti-graffiti advocates who question and seek to exclude its presence.

Cast

Cornbread, Taki 183, T-Kid 170, Revs, Shepard Fairey, Os Gemeos, KRS One, Chino, Revok, Mear One, Tracy 168, Stay High 149, Cope 2, Lady Pink, Zephyr, Skuf, 2esae, Blek Le Rat, Diam, Pez, Zosen, Sixe, Pike & Nug, Falko, Faith47, Scage, Mikey, Zezao, Chaz Bojorquez, Ise, Very One, Belx2, Tribe, Ron English

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