Documentary Films: Exploring Graffiti, Street Art & Urban Art

Henry Chalfant and Tony Silver have a problem: The original Style Wars outtakes footage is damaged and fading. And although with costs around 28,000 USD it’s really expensive there still is a chance to save the unique footage! Style Wars is considered the indispensable document of New York Street culture of the early ’80s, the record on film of a golden age of youthful creativity that exploded into the world from a city in crisis. ...

Supported by Obey, Russian graffiti crew CHO is going to publish their first film! Entitle Комендантский Час (what simply means curfew), the video report includes great bombing, painting, pasting and running action mainly filmed during their trips to and in Spain, France and Russia… Watching the trailer with its nice footage whetted my appetite, for what reason I’m waiting eagerly for the release on December 1st. I’m pretty sure it’s getting huge, but as long as you’re waiting together with me, you should probably check out some other great graffiti action videos, like the 1UP subway graffiti action or the Copenhagen Trains documentary. ...

In September 2011, Soon Gallery brought German graffiti and street artist Hendrik ECB Beikirch to London to paint one of his well-known greyscale faces. A few days ago, video documentarist Stefan Pohl (who also did that nice Birth of a Spray-Can video) published the corresponding documentary! When I watched ECB painting at the IBUg 2011 urban art festival, I was highly impressed by his extensive use of water during painting (you can see that also in the video) and his big talent to diversify tones of grey and to compose them in a perfectionist way… ...

Guerrilla, A Street Intervention is a nice half-animated short film by Sjors Vervoort which had its premiere back in August in all Dutch Pathé cinema’s, as a The Rise of the Planet of the Apes supporting film! I just stumbled upon that nice project today and loved to watch it - the idea is smart, the outworking authentical and the urban environment and atmosphere great. Supported by the Netherlands Film Funds, the films main actors consists of cardboard, plastic bags and some nice ideas… ...

Copenhagen Trains: Vandal Tactics is a brand-new and interesting documentary about danish graffiti in general and the local train writing scene specifically. By presenting nice underground impressions, this 55 minutes short-movie mainly features train graffiti actions which took place between 1997 and 2007 in the Danish capital… Live actions, heavy bombing, mind blowing color productions, top to bottom throw ups, all on those infamous red steel trains that was an object of desire for generations of writers worldwide. ...

Although some friend from London recently told me that this year’s Meeting of Styles wasn’t as wicked as last year’s, on the hundreds of photos you can find online it looks like a big and crazy outdoor party! This annual British edition of the international Meeting of Styles event brings together some of the most talented graffiti artists from all over Europe and has grown from 15 artists and one main wall in its first year to a full scale outdoor block party and street exhibition in 2010 and 2011, including 60 handpicked graffiti artists painting walls, canvases, and boards throughout the day to a backdrop of hip-hop, reggae, ska and more… ...

In August 2011, 72 international urban artists, including for example Shoe, Aryz, Nick Walker, Mr. Jago, El Mac and SPQR (just to name a few), came together in Bristol, UK to celebrate Europe’s largest street art event. With about 13,000 involved spray-cans a whole street, including then huge buildings was transformed into a massive outdoor art gallery during See No Evil… Recently, Hurricane Media published their video documentary of the entire event and gives in that way a great insight into the ideas behind the event, which attracted thousands of visitors, and its final realization. Riddled with some nice impressions of the live painting actions the video documents not just the final pieces but also the amazing festival atmosphere. ...

As all of you already know, Australian graffiti artist Matt Adnate recently opened his Point of View show in Berlin and after my photo-series of his studio work, the Berlin Collective created this pretty nice documentary of the rest of his Berlin trip! As a graffiti artists I always had to work in the night, had to run around and I never really had the freedom to just paint. (Adnate) Combining nice footage and some statements by Adnate, the video gives some interesting insights into the artists world and explains why he likes to paint for galleries or in abandoned buildings. ...

Do you remember the Berlin Wall Freedom Park exhibition which was created for the 50th anniversary of the beginning of building the Berlin Wall in 1961? Recently the organizing Dudes Factory published a nice video documenting the creation process and including some nice statements by participating artists like Nunca, Anton Unai, Miss Van and McBess! The Freedom Park is a monument to the memory of the happiness that was brought through the fall of the berlin wall in November 1989, but should also represents a wake-up call about the problems of our times. ...

In July 2011, a first-of-its-kind public art mural project called Visual Intervention took place in Rochester, NY bringing together local artists and a group of four artists from Cape Town, SA, including Faith47, DAL, Mak1 and FreddySam who shared their talents and painted several nice murals in hopes of inspiring the Rochester community… Finally, the corresponding documentary was published last week which I don’t want to deforce from you. It gives a nice insight into the entire project, and includes not just statements by the artists and organizers, but also explains the event’s reasons and how everything worked out in the end. ...