I never really thought of myself as much of an artist. I know musicians are considered "artists", so I am one in that sense. And I really enjoy photography, so you could say I am one in that sense, as well. But, aside from photography, I was never really interested in visual arts. Which is kind of surprising, because I really enjoy creating things, long projects, and beauty. And art is all of these things. That's one reason I think I've been starting to work more on pinterest "crafts" and why I put "painting a picture" on my bucket list. I think I have all the fuel for the passion if I actually put the effort into starting the fire. I just never really did. This documentary continued to inspire me to pursue these things.
As a whole, the documentary was about street art, which is something that I never knew much about, or really thought much about before. I haven't seen too much of it in Minneapolis-- maybe I'm just not going to the right areas, or maybe I'm not looking for it. When I was in Chicago, I remember briefly seeing a group of buildings covered in art while I was on a train. I also saw a little in London. But nothing like anything they described in the documentary.
The premise of the film was about a French immigrant living in Los Angeles who went everywhere with a camera. He literally had it with him at all times: they even showed a video recording of him taping his toilet flush. Eventually he took a vacation to France, where he spent some time with his cousin, who was a popular street artist. His cousin came to visit him a few months later and introduced him to some local street artists. After his cousin left, he continued to be fascinated by local street artists, and was able to spend a lot of time filming them by convincing them he was making a documentary. Over the course of time, he became more connected to the street artist community, eventually crossing paths with a more prominent street artist from London named Banksy, who had gained international fame by drawing images on the West Bank Wall in Israel. He eventually agreed to let the French man record him, and even invited him to London for a short time, so he could continue to put together his "documentary." Banksy was incredibly secretive, however, and only agreed to be filmed as long as his face was never shown.
I don't want to explain much further, because the ending was so incredibly awesome and I don't want to ruin it for anyone. This documentary's story is the epitome of what I find fascinating about documentaries. Because they are true stories, which are not bound to a script, they can end up going in a million different directions, a lot of which are not endings that you would ever expect to see. At the end of this documentary, Brian and I were literally laughing in disbelief.
Again, I don't want to ruin it. It was too good. So watch it. :)
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