At last I have a moment to tell you what I've been working on for the past few months. I'll likely do that over two posts because a few projects have been in development. For this entry I wanna tell you about my directorial debut!
Back in December, the fine folks at Manifesto Community Projects asked Well and Good a grassroots arts organization that I work with, if we wanted to be involved in the city of Toronto's 175th Anniversary celebrations. We submitted a proposal and it was accepted.
The basis of the proposal was a curated day-long retrospective exhibition of Toronto-based graffiti and street artists who work in a variety of mediums: murals, photography, postering, stickers, wheatpastes, drawings, sculptures etc. Knowing that the art show could only be up for the day March 6, we felt compelled to create something that would have 'legs' and would have more impact over time. So I hatched the idea to create a web specific documentary featuring some of the more prolific artists this city has seen over the past 15 years talking about their work and their individual journey in Toronto.
With a great deal of work, a super teeny budget, some drama and the trust of each of the artists, it premiered March 6, 2009 in Committee Room 2 at Toronto City Hall. The exhibition and the public dialogue that came with it was incredibly positive. The only complaint seemed to be from one of the staffers at City Hall who lamented "I wish this room would always have this vitality!"
Originally we posted the webumentary here. But then, thanks to a 5000% hike in bandwidth over one day (an expensive lesson to learn) we put it here too.
Mad respect to each and every one of the artists involved:
