Screening tonight: To Be Seen
Posted October 28th, 2005 by eliot
Our friend Alice Arnold is screening her great documentary To Be Seen tonight (Friday, October 28) at DCTV. To Be Seen is a 26-minute film about the ways street artists in New York City interact with public space. It features revealing interviews with Swoon, Dan Witz, Ryan Watkins-Hughes, Vinnie Ray, Michael DeFeo, and others. From the director’s description:
“To Be Seen”is a study of visual culture, of urban culture and an exploration of an age-old urban cultural phenomenon, street art. The film takes a critical look at our consumer society by looking at the practice of street art in New York City.
The subculture of street art is significant because it embodies within it a sense of subversiveness, which is rare in today’s culture of consumerism and political amnesia. Street art functions as a way of ‘taking back the streets.’ Streets are public spaces, but increasingly public spaces are being privatized - through security cameras, Business Improvement Districts, and the profusion of corporate marketing. This form of art, that is not a commodity (there is no price tag), that is somewhat ephemeral, and that tends to address current political and/or cultural issues, will be examined as a form of public expression, a form of media and a means of political and social protest.
The film is showing tonight at 7pm with a number of other short films. DCTV is at 87 Lafayette St, two blocks below Canal St., in Manhattan.
