THE GRAFFITI ARTIST

Although they throw a lot of words up on walls, the elusive taggers haunting the trainyards and back alleys of Portland and Seattle have little to say ? to each other or anyone else. In this almost wordless film, world-weary Nick, a solitary street kid, spends his nights claiming walls with his tag name, ?Rupture.? When he meets Jesse, his hermetic life changes. Jesse?s also a tagger, but he?s white, lives off money his mother sends him, doesn?t steal, and has his eye on gallery fame. His tag is ?Flip,? and for awhile, these man-boys make some mean pieces by moonlight. But something intervenes ? an attraction with an equal repulsion, and the obvious differences between them. Nick?s in trouble with the law, while Jesse stays clean. James Bolton?s spare film is a lyrical visual poem. A hypnotic score and excellent cinematography drive this film from subculture feature to something approaching poignancy.