Exit Through the Gift Shop
This UK made film by paranoid pictures was the gem of this years Sundance film festival and is possibly best described by the man not quite behind the camera Banksy as, “the story of how one man set out to film the un-filmable. And failed.”
This is the first film by Banksy, who’s graffiti can be seen on the separation barrier of Palestine’s West Bank, to post hurricane New Orleans, to right in your own back yard of Bristol and London. Not to mention a few appearances at the Tate Modern–
So the film is basically a story of a slightly crazed French shopkeeper who is determined not only to find the true appearance of Bansky, who has always kept it a secret to avoid persecution, but to also catch him on tape for his pseudo documentary. And it all ends with the artist turning the camera back on the owner resulting in an incredible film full of things that we are never meant to see, like the artist and his mates at work on walls, and in exclusive interviews.
Not to mention, through the challenge of Banksy, the Frenchman at the beginning puts on the biggest street art exhibition in history. But is he a real artist? Or have his surreal surroundings simply convinced him that he is. Regardless, the botox affect of being surrounded by genius, this film, the premise, the promise it makes and in a very strange way keeps, along with the remarkably witty commentary supplied by Banksy himself is definitely worth the 87 minutes running time.
And if you are ever around Park City’s Main Street, about half way down the hill, check out the little gift left on a wall by Banksy himself. Is his uprooted flower a commentary on the film, or just another signature having captured another city?