RackGaki: Japanese Graffiti

Margaret Kilgallen: Heroines

★ 9

"I especially hope to inspire young women, because I often feel like so much emphasis is put on how beautiful you are, and how thin you are, and not a lot of emphasis is put on what you can do and how smart you are. I'd like to change the emphasis of what's important when looking at a woman." Filmed in San Francisco in 2000, Margaret Kilgallen (1967-2001) discusses the female figures she incorporated into many of her paintings and graffiti tags. Loosely based on women she discovered while listening to folk records, watching buck dance videos, or reading about the history of swimming, Kilgallen painted her heroines to inspire others and to change how society looks at women. Three of Kilgallen's heroines—Matokie Slaughter, Algia Mae Hinton, and Fanny Durack—are shown and heard through archival recordings. Kilgallen is shown tagging train cars with her husband, artist Barry McGee, in a Bay Area rail yard and painting in her studio at UC Berkeley (source: Art21).

Basquiat, Une Vie

2010 · ★ 8

From Brooklyn to the Bronx, Soho to Greenwich, Union Square to Wall Street... Join us and the friends, collaborators and gallery owners who supported Jean-Michel Basquiat throughout his life. The first ever recognized graffiti artist, who saw international success as a neo-expressionist painter in the 80s, Basquiat is a true contemporary hero who died at the peak of his career.

Pinto con lata

2011

The first Venezuelan graffiti documentary featuring the participation of the most important writers of national graffiti, either by style, quantity, quality, technique and their experience or the places where they write, these writers have set a milestone in what graffiti is today in Venezuela. In the graffiti: respect, strategy, intelligence, experience, agility, skill, boldness, competition, secrecy and illegality are key and determining issues captured in this documentary. Pinto con lata takes place in the Gran Caracas, and records the graffiti movement during the years 2008-2011. Gran Caracas and its contrast, its nights, its harshness, its people and graffiti are the main protagonists.

Beautiful Losers

2008 · ★ 6.5

This documentary follows the lives and careers of a collective group of do-it-yourself artists and designers who inadvertently affected the art world.

B movie

2009 · ★ 6.8

This mini documentary features a rare interview with infamous graffiti artist Banksy, delving into how he started out as a graffiti writer up to his shift to gallery art, installations, CDs, and more. Til this day only a hand full of people know his real identity, such as friends appearing here: 3D of Massive Attack, Damien Hirst, and others.

The Secret of Trees

2013 · ★ 5

13-year-old inventor Aidan has discovered that trees use a mathematical formula to gather sunlight in crowded forests. Now he wonders why we don't collect solar energy the same way.

Sydewayz: Street Graffiti

2008

The hottest rides, daredevil maneuvers and pulse-pounding music combine in this trip through California's street racing scene. From East Oakland to Sacramento, crowds gather to witness the illegal excitement. Join them as late-night crews take the wheel for a few seconds of fame and brazen daylight racers burn up the streets to become heroes. Each tricked-out car is designed to create the perfect impression and achieve the sweetest victory.

Sinfonías de ciudad nº 3. Amor.

No synopsis available.

Art as a Weapon

2014 · ★ 6

Street art, creativity and revolution collide in this beautifully shot film about art’s ability to create change. The story opens on the politically charged Thailand/Burma border at the first school teaching street art as a form of non-violent struggle. The film follows two young girls (Romi & Yi-Yi) who have escaped 50 years of civil war in Burma to pursue an arts education in Thailand. Under the threat of imprisonment and torture, the girls use spray paint and stencils to create images in public spaces to let people know the truth behind Burma's transition toward "artificial democracy." Eighty-two hundred miles away, artist Shepard Fairey is painting a 30’ mural of a Burmese monk for the same reasons and in support of the students' struggle in Burma. As these stories are inter-cut, the film connects these seemingly unrelated characters around the concept of using art as a weapon for change.

Flooded McDonald’s

2009 · ★ 4

Flooded McDonald's is a new film work in which a convincing life-size replica of the interior of a McDonald's burger bar, without any customers or staff present, gradually floods with water.

SON

2025

A mother and her homeless son’s last line of communication–cement walls, electrical cabinets and dusty windows.

Jisoe

2005 · ★ 10

A year in the life of troubled Australian graffiti artist Justin Hughes.