Sunday, February 19, 2006

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
QUALITY OF LIFE - The Book
The film will be given a general, though limited release in the USA this year.

Well know graffiti photographer James Prigoff prefaces a forthcoming book from Soft Skull press that illustrates the making of the eagerly awaited graff film Quaility of Life.

Written, directed & produced by Benjamin Morgan the film looks to be the best analysis of the mentality behind most graff writers. As a one time writer in the 80s/early 90s it was & still is always extremely hard to explain ones actions & motivations with graff, especially when dealing with people who have no other viewpoint other than 'it's illegal'. So hopefully this film will convey the angst, desire, frustation, drive, creativity & adrenalin that was part & parcel of one of the most exciting artforms of the 20th century & is still going hard today. Sure there are writers who just want to fuck shit up & cause the most damage, but there are plenty who just want to use it as a form of creative expression. This film look to focus on the latter.

Although the director was never a writer himself, he was in one of the major b-boy crews in the 80s called the Fantastic Fource & his circle of friends naturally included plenty of writers. There's an excelllent interview with Morgan here at Filmshi.

From the state of things in this country at the moment, in relation to the paranoia regarding graffiti, this film will probably be either banned or rated R.

"The title refers to a law adopted in most major cities that equates graffiti with robbery and rape and brings with it serious jail time."

Check the film website for trailers.
Quality of Life website

No comments: