“Bomb It” isn’t the first documentary to address the history and evolution of graffiti culture, and it probably won’t be the last. But what distinguishes Jon Reiss’s lively, sure-handed film from the rest is that it widens the spectrum by taking a comprehensively international viewpoint.
Traveling from graffiti art’s roots in Philadelphia and New York to Paris, Tokyo, Cape Town and other cities around the globe, the film features interviews with artists (some veiling their identities) whose milieu gives impetus to their activities, which include social rebellion, political agitation, expressions of boredom and simply bringing art to the streets. Though Mr. Reiss’s approach is decidedly pro-graffiti, he also gives screen time to the occasional naysayers: law-enforcement types who consider tagging a public nuisance.
The movie also considers that bombing (the term of choice for graffiti painters), once deemed a subversive act, has inevitably been co-opted over the last decade or so, its influences turning up in video games and marketing campaigns, and the work itself mounted on gallery walls. But if the artists shown here making magic with spray paint are any indication, graffiti will never go out of style. It will continue to move with the times; with luck, the filmmakers there to document it will do it the justice that this one does.
