Graffiti Veritè

Tribe. Skew. Risk. Tempt. Perfectly good English words which have an entirely different meaning on the colorful streets of L.A. Sprawled across walls, often accompanied by truly accomplished paintings, these are the names of graffiti artists (as opposed to "taggers," which are gang members that scrawl their initials or messages on any convenient canvas--preferably public property). The kids profiled in Bob Bryan's documentary are artists not taggers, though beyond a few buzzphrases about "free expression," the issue of defacing (or artistically re-rendering) public property is not really addressed. In interview clips with some two dozen L.A. graffiti artists hailing from both the east and west sides, the program examines contemporary work, particularly as it relates to the larger hip hop culture; the roots of graffiti in the Latino gangs of the 50's, 60's, and 70's; and the problems that L.A. graffiti artists face today--especially from gang members. Drawing entirely on the commentary of the graffiti artists, the program suffers from a rather insular viewpoint, not to mention a fair amount of repetition. Still, many graffiti artists' work is now available on canvas in art galleries, and the work shown on the video is very impressive, even more so when you consider that the primary tool here is a can of spray paint. Although the accompanying press release makes it clear that part of the intended audience is high school students, I'm not convinced that a) kids need this kind of encouragement, or b) teachers will be comfortable with the language in a rap song played during the video. Recommended, with reservations. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)