Bomb It!

An explosive, cutting-edge documentary, BOMB IT! explores the art, politics, and philosophy of graffiti writers on five continents. Filmmaker Jon Reiss intercuts interviews of “bombers,” the graffiti artists, with guerrilla footage of them in action. BOMB IT! shows how the New York style has been adapted by street culture throughout the world. “Tagging,” as the art is called, makes a political rather than a personal statement in places like Germany and South Africa. A writer in Tokyo recalls a monk saying it's OK to keep tagging if he feels no shame with the Buddha looking over his shoulder. A woman in Brazil paints to give color and form to poor children who have no access to art galleries. Bombers can be harassed, arrested, killed — or left alone in places where the police are overworked. The flip side of the story is told, too. In LA, there's a self-styled “graffiti guerrilla” who paints over graffiti to slow their messages of gang violence. Many writers on the margins of society paint in protest against the commercialization of public space. They see themselves, philosophically, as practicing “typographic terrorism.” At least bombers aren't selling anything, one Brazilian justifies; they only want to show they exist. (In English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Japanese with English subtitles)