browngeek

Quality of Life is a compelling film about the world of graffiti - the art and the artists. It is shot entirely in the Mission district of San Francisco. The film revolves around two kids that are graffiti artists, spray painting Mission during the night, and, ironically, are painters during the day. It has the expected nocturnal scenes where the protaganists prepare, spray paint and get caught by the cops and other cliched situations like father-son duel, boyfriend-girlfriend duel, friend-friend duel…all with a high-energy background score.

Where the film stands out is that it sticks to its core - graffiti painting. It does not glorify it nor does it dwell in the economic stigma of its consequence. It simply shows a “slice-of-life” view of the artists. And it peaks with an astonishingly obvious yet unexpected end. It is not just that a Picasso painting is the last graffiti painted, but its the message it delivers. An end that will haunt you.

After the film, I spoke with the director Benjamin Morgan (he was in the theatre, promoting the film). Expectedly, he used to be a graffiti artist with a juvenile record. Two things that he mentioned about the film that intrigued me- one was that the film is loosely based on the events leading to Picasso’s Blue Period. The other is that the title of film derives from the “Qualify of Life” indicators that include graffiti as one of the environmental indicators.

The film has already won awards in a couple of film festivals and made its theatrical debut, rightfully, in San Francisco. There is no Hollywood-style marketing promotion - it is thriving on word-of-mouth. If it makes it to where you live, consider yourself lucky, and go see it.