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Spraymasters

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  • Directors

    Manny Kirchheimer

    Manfred (Manny) Kirchheimer is an award-winning independent filmmaker based in New York. His groundbreaking film Stations of the Elevated, which premiered at the 1981 New York Film Festival, documented the subway graffiti explosion of 1977, a key period in which graffiti made the transition from writing to art. More recently, Tall, a feature about the evolution of the American skyscraper, opened the Premieres film series at the Museum of Modern Art’s grand reopening in 2004, and enjoyed runs at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, and abroad. Kirchheimer’s other films include We Were So Beloved, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, Bridge High, Short Circuit, Claw, Haiku, Leroy Douglas, and Colossus on the River.

    Kirchheimer teaches film production at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He is currently in preproduction for a new documentary about war as represented in the graphic arts throughout history.

    Kirchheimer is listed in Who’s Who in Entertainment, Who’s Who in the East, and The Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film.

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..spraymasters.. ..
In SprayMasters, four ex-graffiti writers reflect on their early years as renegades who sneaked into rail yards and decorated New York subway cars with stolen paint while eluding arrest by the authorities. Now in their forties and embraced by the establishment, Lee Quinones, Lady Pink, and Futura 2000 are prominent artists with an international following, while Zephyr is a widely published journalist who writes about popular culture. They talk about the extreme risks they took as teenagers, the joys of seeing their work on subway cars, the diverse styles of graffiti, its global reach, and its place in modern life, where it has been co-opted by advertising and fashion. SprayMasters is a follow-up to Kirchheimer’s underground classic Stations of the Elevated (1980), the first film to feature New York’s infamous subway graffiti.

Although the exuberant painted trains are gone, they live again in SprayMasters, in rare footage never seen before, set to an electrifying musical soundtrack that evokes the heyday of graffiti.

A film by MANFRED KIRCHHEIMER
85 minutes, color

“Manny Kirchheimer is a consummate filmmaker.”
– The Independent

“One of the best American filmmakers.” – Wide Angle

“His films are hopeful, yet they admonish the future.”
– Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film

© 2007 Streetwise Films. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. ......

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  • Status: Single
  • Zodiac Sign: Pisces

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