Waiting for Superman

Well, spring break for my college was last week.  I spent the past seven days in St. Louis working on a service project, fixing up community gardens in disadvantaged neighborhoods and learning about a variety of social justice issues, including but not limited to human trafficking and the sorry, sorry state of America's educational system.  To kick off discussion of the latter issue, the City Lights project director hosted a screening of 2010's Waiting for Superman.  It's a challenging, polarizing, and convicting interpretation of what has gone wrong in America's schools, and what can be done to fix them.

 The film follows the lives of several young students in their families, detailing the issues they clash with trying to ensure their intellectual future.  The stories of these students are inter-cut with commentary on flawed mainstays in America's schools, such as the teacher tenure system and the 'tracking' system utilized by many school districts to assign high school courses via skill level.

The film advocates the philosophy of Charter Schools, which boast longer class times and focused curriculum, as an alternative to poor public schools or exclusive private schools.  As with any documentary, any attempt at impartiality is fruitless, and the film glazes over some important points held  onto by those of opposing opinions, and relies heavily on statics that may be affected by other factors.  However, Waiting for Superman brings to light many key issues about a problem that will only grow worse as time goes on: poverty and poor upbringing are less important factors in the declining education levels in America than commonly assumed.  In the end, those fighting over education aren't doing their best to benefit the people most affected by their squabbling: the students.

Regardless of your position on the issue of America's educational system, this is a well-made documentary with a lot of heart, and it accomplishes what any good documentary should: it instills a fervor in the viewer to want to learn more about the issue discussed and come up with their own conclusions.

(REVIEW) Exit Through the Gift Shop

Though Inside Job took home the prize for Best Documentary at last night's Academy Awards, a cloud of controversy surrounded the prospects of another documentary nominee, Exit Through the Gift Shop.

 This film was directed by the enigmatic British artist Banksy, whose anonymity is one of his greatest claims to fame.  A few days before the awards took place, it was announced that the Oscar ceremony planners would not allow Banksy to accept his award anonymously.

This being the case, I was eagerly rooting for Exit Through the Gift Shop's victory last night, if only to see what sort of shenanigans the snubbed artist would get up to.  Justin Timberlake's presentation quips centered around claiming that he was Banksy, though most members of the audience didn't seem to understand the joke.  The Onion even got in on the fun, tweeting "Don’t recognize the person 9 rows up, 15 seats in. Must be Banksy" midway through the ceremony.

So, for the vast majority of you that haven't seen this film (available now on dvd and Netflix instant streaming): What is this movie about, for it to cause such a stir?

Exit Through the Gift Shop begins by detailing the life of one Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant and family man with an obsession with capturing life on film.  He records the world around him at every opportunity, using up handfuls of tapes a day.  He hardly ever goes back and watches these tapes; his only care is that life is recorded, and doesn't feel the need to relive it.  Through a family relation that calls himself Space Invader, Guetta is introduced to the underground world of street art.  By following his cousin around the city late into the night as he creates his graffiti work, Guetta finds a focus for his filming obsession.

Over a period of months Guetta accompanies handfuls of street artists, filming their exploits under the pretense of gathering material to make a documentary about street art.  In reality, making something out of his recordings was the last thing on Guetta's mind.  Eventually, he encounters the gold standard of street artists, Banksy, who takes Guetta under his wing.

After documenting many Banksy's exploits, Guetta is encouraged to go off and try to create art on his own.  After discovering that Guetta had no intention of making his documentary, Banksy took it upon himself to craft the film, in the end making Thierry Guetta the film's true focus.  The film's final act, which documents Guetta's gradual metamorphosis into the hyped-up artistic phenomenon Mr. Brainwash, ultimately raises these fundamental questions: what is art, and can anyone create it?

The film portrays attendees of art conventions as individuals who can't recognize true art, and who are incredibly susceptible to hype and media suggestion.  Even Exit Through the Gift Shop's title is indicative of one of the film's major themes: the commercialization and over-saturation of what was once a legitimate and personal underground art movement.

To protect the provocative impact of the film itself, I will leave my commentary at that.  Since the film's release, it has stirred up wild rumors and controversy over whether parts of the film were staged, or even whether the entire documentary is an elaborate hoax masterminded by Banksy.  Judge for yourself: hoax or no, Exit Through the Gift Shop is a poignant and multi-facetted look at the world of artistic expression and commercialization that kept me thinking for weeks after I viewed it.