"Exit Through the Gift Shop" Documentary

     Today, I wanted to talk about the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop from 2010.

     Initially, going from what I read about the documentary, I thought it was to center around the English-based artist, Banksy. Instead, it focused more on his film documenter, Thierry Guetta. The film talks about how Thierry used to own a clothing store, and eventually started recording street art. Unlike other street artists, Banksy was more hesitant to having Thierry around, as his identity is supposed to remain a secret. However, he did allow Thierry to record what he was creating, but also utilized him as more of an "lookout" or an "accomplice," because if the police knew about what Banksy (or other street artists) were doing, they would arrest them for vandalism. In this way, Banksy could continue hiding his identity while also avoiding getting caught by the police. For a while, Thierry's footage wasn't used for anything but to collect dust on a shelf, but when Banksy encouraged him to pursue art for himself, Thierry used his footage and created a long montage film of sorts called Life Remote Control (which looked really absurd and chaotic). Although Banksy (and myself included) thought the film wasn't well crafted, Thierry felt that his creativity was "blossoming" to which he created his own pen name MBW or "Mister Brain Wash," and continued exploring his creative side. However, like his film, the work he created was all (for a lack of a better word) plagarized versions of other words, that he simply tweaked a little bit and called his own. I understand that there are works that to take influence from others, but those works have a means of conveying the artists idea in some degree or another. Thierry's works just felt very selfishly stealing from the other artist, and I did not support at all with what he was doing. He also treated his helpers rudely, when they too were contributing their talents to help him with his first studio to his first big show. I couldn't understand either why the public was so supportive of his art, and liked it, when it is all work that I'm sure they must've seen before. By that point, I really didn't like Thierry Guetta, and I didn't appreciate the remainder of the film focusing on him. Although I thought his backstory was interesting, and he seemed like a nice person initially, I just couldn't get behind how he was acting when he started branching out and doing his own thing. It was then that I wished the documentary did focus on Banksy, as I'm sure his story and his impact on the community would've been far more interesting to learn about. Overall, the documentary wasn't bad, I just wished it did focused on Banksy, as he is truly the most "mysterious" one in the film that would've been a good asset to utilize.

* This film was 1 hour, 26 minutes and 6 seconds long.*