Bomb It (2007)

I was SO excited to finally get a hold of this movie! It played in my city's film festival from two years ago. It was one of the last shows playing and it showed on a sunday morning or some stupid time like that. 

Bomb It is a documentary about graffiti from all over the world. It starts out with New York City, and goes into Philidelphia where graffiti was created by a guy named Cornbread.

The film goes on to explore the cultural differences in graffiti from Tokyo, France, Barcelona etc. My favorite location was Sao Paulo, Brasil. They discussed how the lettering in Sao Paulo was reminiscent of the architecture in the city. The letters are spaced out more then in any other city. Most of the flourishes added to the letters are at the top of the letter, just like the sky scrapers differ at the top. I also liked the Sao Paulo graffiti best because i felt like it was alot more artistic then some of the other cities. In L.A. the graffiti artists were all about representing their gang. As much as I respect those people for their beliefs and how they chose to represent them I could relate better to the Brasilian artists. For example, the image above is of the side of a bridge in Sao Paulo. Everything is so colorful.

I learned alot about the style as well. The title, "Bomb It" comes from war. Graffiti artists are at war with the law. they are considered delinquents for their work.  How do they respond? They bomb it. They keep attacking the city with their tag. A "tag" is a mark, a signature, a label. 

The  image to the left might look familiar. It's similar to work done by the now popular Shepard Fairey. He made this poster to help promote it. Fairey is a widely respected for his work on the Obama Presidential Campaign. Before presidential artist he makes Graffiti. Fairey is one of the many interviewed for the documentary.

Overall, a very interesting representation of an intricate, urban artform. A must see.