Exit Through the Gift Shop
Banky’s Exit Through the Gift Shop illustrates the importance of environment to the success of a film. But is the speed of modern communications in conflict with the length of time it takes a film to reach the screen, making the issue-based documentary less relevant? Richard Sowada ponders…
A film like Exit Through the Gift Shop doesn’t come along too often for exhibitors, distributors and audiences; in fact perhaps once in a decade. The way it has played out highlights the strange relationship film has with its environment - especially documentary.
Documentary itself is in a strange state at the moment, particularly films dealing with political and environmental issues and the like. The immediate access to information provided by the internet has, in many ways, reduced the currency of the subject matter that may be presented in documentary film. From concept to production to market, there can be a lag of more than a year before films find an audience.
At Cannes this year I saw an extraordinary doco, Severe Clear, which dealt with a US Serviceman’s experience in Iraq, documented through video he shot on the ground. Great story, excellent film, strong political message, looks and sounds great, but by the time it hits screens, the issues and interest may well have moved on. This is not to say that the film won’t have a life - it will - but perhaps a very different one to what it may have just a few years ago.
So is there an issue with issue-based docs for theatrical release? I’d say yes. It’s got something to do with timing, the speed with which audiences move from issue to issue, and the over-saturation in the media of big issues. As a result, issue-based documentaries to my mind are tending to enter the debate later rather than sooner - a reinforcement rather than a catalyst. (There are exceptions of course such as An Inconvenient Truth and The Cove.)
Although in a different sphere, and certainly without the weight of more political and social-justice works, the alignment of Exit Through the Gift Shop to real world activity was something to behold.
From a simple conversation with the Oz distribs, Madman, where they said something like, “hey…we’ve got this film we’re looking at doing something limited with”, to what is proving to be a major success, the momentum has been astounding and the timing perfect. And it all started when some council workers covered up a Banksy work in an unauthorized area in Hosier Lane.
Whilst the campaign with any film is usually well defined, this one was overtaken by the environment, assisted of course by Melbourne’s relationship with street art. What ACMI looked to do (and it’s what we do generally) is provide a deeper context to the work. In this, our curator Kristy Matheson constructed a range of activities around the release - a book signing of Street Studio and an accompanying discussion examining who actually owns and has rights over public spaces.
This discussion was hosted by local scribe and identity Fiona Scott-Norman and included Miso (artist), Richard Muntz (from the advertising world) and Prof Alison Young. It centered on the notion that whilst street art is often labeled as vandalism and removed, we are on the other hand assailed with all manner of advertising messages over which we have no say, and whose aesthetic value is often questionable to say the least.
This is an issue that Exit Through the Gift Shop actively engages with and there is a long tradition of street and other artists making comment on these ads as well as actively reconstituting them into new works of art (artist Ron English takes this kind of “jamming” to a highly sophisticated level).
An interesting point raised during the discussion was that “we don’t have the choice or any kind of say in seeing street art either, so either way we’re being hammered by stuff we may not want”.
In any case, from an exhibitor’s point of view, a film like this really transcends the norm, and, well, the alignment of planets is a wonderful and rare astrological sight to behold.
Exit Through the Gift Shop is so playful in its relationship to cinema and to the real world that you can’t help enjoy being a part of it, and it is this clever duality that turns it from a slingshot into a shotgun.
We’d love to hear your comments on the nature of documentary and its relationship to the real world…it’s a fascinating discussion.
- Richard Sowada, ACMI’s Head of Film Programs
I think the main point is that many issues will and must occupy the cultural landscape all at once, because real issues remain important and relevant over a longer period of time than the blistering speed that modern communications now operate at through new media.
A documentary does much more than just expose an issue – it deals with the issue in depth, and can be really effective in presenting the complexity of a topic in the way a quarterly publication might – but also be very entertaining.
The classic role of documentary work is obviously to document the real world, but we have moved on to a much more complex level where reality and fiction are mixed, genres broadened or blurred, media are all converging and in some cases political and commercial intentions are harder to discern.
These are some reasons why people should arguably develop stronger literacies to be able to make sense of issues.
I loved seeing the film Exit Through the Gift Shop because it IS a political film, insofar as it is a Culture Jam in itself – obscure and clever enough to deserve the Banksy name. I would say that artists like Banksy are valued for cleverly keeping people guessing, or for making people think then think again.
I would question how much the film’s success is to do with the alignment of planets, as Melbourne’s relationship with street art seems pretty strong. Street art comes up for public debate again and again – ie., the Commonwealth Games 2006, or the 2008 row over Disney’s mini-Melbourne display of “graffitied” lanes.
ACMI as exhibitor and institution is highly valued for its role in providing the public with original, relevant and inspiring cultural work. Its purpose must be to carry out this role over the long term despite often rapidly shifting cultural trends that can be hard to accurately predict. Thanks for screening.