I don't go to cinema Amstelveen that often. It is a small cinema, about fifty seats, and they screen a weird blend of movies. Mostly children's movies and French movies about the sadness of life. The small cinema can only afford it to screen blockbusters months after their release and by then I have usually seen them already. But my father had some free tickets which we had to use before December 10th, so tuesday we went to see Exit Through The Giftshop - The world's first Street Art Disaster movie. I didn't expect too much from it, but felt very cultural nonetheless for going to see a documentary about art.
It's a GREAT documentary (although I'm kind of doubting how truthful the story actually is). Very funny, sometimes I couldn't stop laughing. But that didn't really matter since there were only six more people in the room besides my dad and me.
What's it about?
A Frenchman living in LA
Thierry Guetty owns a clothing shop and has a videocamera permanently glued to his hand. When he goes to France to visit his family his nephew has started making little space invader mozaiques and glueing them onto buildings in the city. Through his nephew he gets involved in the French Street Art movement and he starts filming those street artists. Thierry says he's going to make a street art documentary out of those tapes. He keeps hearing about a certain Banksy, a British street artist who does really cool stuff (he placed his own painting in a museum without security noticing it) and decides he wants his documentary to be about Banksy. Eventually Thierry and Banksy meet and Thierry starts filming him. When street art becomes a hype Banksy tells Thierry that this is the right moment for him to release his film to show the world that street art isn't about money. Thierry isn't such a great filmmaker though, so Banksy tells him that he will finish the film and Thierry should just go back to LA and focus a bit on his art (Thierry has started putting up posters too). So that's what the frenchman does, he goes back to LA hires a team of graphic designers who execute his ideas and hires a big building for an exposition. Thierry, who now calls himself, Mr. Brainswash becomes insanely popular. Not really what Banksy meant when he said focus on your art en maybe set up a small exposition.
Anyway, you should see the documentary!
It's cool, funny and you don't even have to be interested in art to like it (but of course the art is really, really cool!!!). Something which made it extra cool for me is that I had spotted a Space Invader mozaique in Amsterdam when I was walking there with friends. I googled it and there should be 26 of those figures placed all over Amsterdam. So I have added something new to my to do list: Find all 26 space invaders in Amsterdam. Maybe something to do in the christmas break?
