Graffiti in its innocence

Wall Writers explores graffiti’s eruption into the mainstream society during a period of social turmoil in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, and takes a closer look not only at early graffiti’s place on the wall but its place in the culture of the time. Featuring unprecedented access to and exclusive interviews with graffiti’s originators CORNBREAD, TAKI 183, LSD OM, and more than a two-dozen others. Testimonies from journalists, historians and politicians who bore witness to the wall-writing revolution are also included in the film.

Alongside a national screening programme, I also delivered workshops and facilitated panel discussions with artists featured in the film, and leading figures from the arts, politics and youth advocacy.

More comprehensive than anything on this subject, Wall Writers explores not only early graffiti writing itself but the writers creating it and the culture that drove them to write — be it a need to rebel against the government, to pass a message, or simply be recognized by society. The film’s exclusive interviews are coupled with rare photographs and archival footage, most of which have never been seen on screen before and serve as historical reference points as well as evidence of early graffiti that was buffed away decades ago.

NY Screening