Documentary Films: Exploring Graffiti, Street Art & Urban Art

Eurocultured is a series of street festivals and linked projects that celebrate the diversity of European Culture in all its forms. After its great success in Manchester back in 2010, it took place in the Finnish city of Turku earlier this year and again brought together urban dance, live music, DJ sets, hip hop theater, various action sports and graffiti artists from all over Europe, like Nychos, Mr. Jago, Elph and others! Recently, Spearfish published their Eurocultured Retrospective video documentary, exploring the festivals origins and unique delights featuring live performances from Balkan Beat Box, Sleeping Giants, Riot Jazz, Bad Ass Brass Band, KKC Orchestra and Dr Mahogany’s’ Goat Circus, as well as interviews with some of Europe’s top graffiti artists Aryz, Mr Kern, Bue, Turkesa and many more. ...

Ostkreuz station is was one the tradition-richest train stations in Berlin. With its (rusty) structural steelwork, old brick-built houses, fantastic stairs and other architectural peculiarities Ostkreuz was the mother-of-all old-school interchange stations in the Eastern part! Since winter 2007/08 it’s now under construction - the plan is to build another ugly glass palace station - for what reason it’s just superb for me to get the chance to look back and enjoy the old days by watching the nice Ostkreuz documentary by Laura Geiger and Tom Kretschmer who filmed Ostkreuz’ everyday-life between 2005 and 2007. ...

Urban artists Karl Addison and James Bullough recently finished their new purple mural art works in Berlin! Curated by Etsy and in between the heart of Kreuzberg, the mural shows an elderly women by Addison - the idea of life, inspiration and history - and Bullough’s trademark arrows and combines in that way energy and life-experience. As James informed me yesterday, in addition to this funny mural there’s also a nice video they just put together, which documents the entire project. For that reason I’m able to share this three minutes mural art documentary with you! Seems they had a lot of fun… ...

Sampa Graffiti is a video series that focuses on graffiti artists and their work in the city of São Paulo and it’s surrounding areas. Each episode is dedicated to an artist that create a piece throughout the video while talking about his thoughts on graffiti and arts in general. Recently the 12th episode has been published, featuring Cranio (English: Skull), a 29 years old graffiti artist who speaks about his roots, Brasilian graffiti in general and his vision of his graffiti career… ...

Berlin is a very dynamic city - everyone who already had the chance to come to this town knows that. To catch this flowing Berlin spirit and to deliver some brilliant impressions from the street of the German capital, Matthias Makarinus (who also did the abandoned places in Berlin series and captured the snow in Berlin) started to create a new and astonishing video 16 months ago! Dynamic light, clouds, street life, movement and much more. Shot from May 2010 - September 2011… ...

As already mentioned, British broadcaster Channel4 showed The Antics Roadshow by Banksy last Saturday evening! The hour-long special charted the history of behaving badly in public, from anarchists and activists to attention seeking eccentrics and was in that way a must to watch for all Banksy fans and every guerrilla art enthusiast… Narrated by Kathy Burke and produced by Jamie D’cruz, The Antics Roadshow examines the stories behind some of the most audacious stunts of recent times and what motivates the perpetrators, from mindless boredom to heartfelt political beliefs. ...

Ha, right after I posted about Banks’s upcoming Antics Roadshow I spotted another hot program tip for this weekend: Graffiti Wars is an urban art documentary examining street art and graffiti, and the creative tensions and conflicts within this artistic arena. It’s the story of the ongoing Banksy vs. Robbo battle…Just remember the RIP Street Art exhibition Robbo did last year… At street level a bitter war is being waged between graffiti writers, street artists and the authorities. While graffiti writers face trial and prison sentences for their art, some street artists’ work is lauded and protected behind Perspex. ...

All Banksy enthusiasts are able to look forward to The Antics Roadshow made by Banksy himself! This coming Saturday (August 13th, 2011), the British Channel 4 will show Banksy’s incomplete guide to total anarchy, including the greatest hits of wayward behaviour, sedition and sabotage… Basically I just thought it was a good name for a TV programme and I’ve been working back from there. (Banksy) The hour-long special charts the history of behaving badly in public, from anarchists and activists to attention seeking eccentrics, presenting for example Michael Fagan talking about breaking into the Queen’s bedroom or Noel Godin, who pioneered attacking celebrities with custard pies. ...

When well-known Portuguese-born deconstruction artist Alexandre Farto aka Vhils visited Venice in California a short while ago, he was followed by filmmaker Carlos Gonzalez who documented his latest work… This particular piece was done in conjunction with the European Bailout Show at the Post No Bills showspace and located just on the side of the gallery. I like the footage and especially the reverse playing and the wired atmosphere. Additionally it’s always nice to see heavy machines in action to create street artworks… ...

A few weeks ago the VNA crew teamed up with itdrewitself (you know, the dudes who recently visited Ron English in his studio!) to present three Australian urban artists painting in a derelict warehouse and chatting about their work… Being linked by being not just Australians and also renowned artists but by independently visiting the UK in June, Meggs, Anthony Lister and Kid Zoom painted a face in their unique styles and created in that way a nice collaboration-wall in London. ...