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What inspired you to make this piece?
As I rode the subway every day, I began to pay attention to the scratching on the windows of the New York City subways. "What could all this mean?" "Why do these kids feel it necessary to write their name?" As I found more and more about "scratchees," I realized that it was only a small part of "graffiti" culture. That was when I figured that I needed to do more research and create a project that dealt with all of the different levels of graffiti.
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| From SCRATCHING WINDOWS. |
Tell us a little about the process involved in making this work.
My approach was pretty straightforward in the process. I decided that I wanted to primarily focus on the young people that are doing it today. I wanted to capture the real neighborhoods that these kids lived in, and show them for who they are based on my relationship with them, with their trust. Interviews were needed, but shooting in the city was necessary to show the time and place that this story was taking place. I would like to think that the project is a contemporary one and that it tries to show a subculture that exists at the moment, [one] that people usually have misconceptions about; they usually don't even recognize the movement.
We shot interviews with famous older writers who provided a history and general information about what it meant to be a graffiti writer (experience and wisdom). It was a way to show how different the younger writers are in their approach towards not only graf [graffiti], but life.
Since there is no narration, it is the response in their interviews that provides the kind of "flow" that this project called for, in my opinion.
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| From SCRATCHING WINDOWS. |
Do you have any interesting and/or amusing behind-the-scenes stories about the making of this particular work?
March 28, 1998. It was 2:30 when Casey (a producer) and I met up with two writers. We were in Jackson Heights to do a Super8 film shoot in a few locations. We did a few quick pieces in back of a restaurant, one writer climbed up onto a minivan to do an outline on a high part of a brick wall, and then we were in an alley. This went on for about a couple of hours until (I guess) neighbors reported their findings to the cops.
We were going to stop filming until we decided to do just one more with both writers in the same shot. Meanwhile, Casey is holding a portable light in his hand to make it possible to expose the light. It was sort of a dark alley, so the light called attention.
After the outline of their pieces were done, all of a sudden, from around the corner, two patrol cars come with their search lights a-blazin'. That was when everybody scrambled . . . climbed up the fire escape on the roof of the building.
Meanwhile, I'm left with my Super8 camera still rolling . . . two cops enter with their flashlights . . . it was over. I gave myself up and nobody else was caught. Not even Casey. I went to the precinct, papers were filed, didn't sleep . . . at 7:00 AM, I was transferred along with some domestic abusers to Queens Central Booking, where I sat in a cell for about 17 hours. I was released as my case was dismissed.
Never will I go back to jail.
Is there a relationship between your work as a video/filmmaker and life in the New York metropolitan area?
My only relationship to New York is that my office is located there. I'm from Boston . . . Go Red Sox!
How has the burgeoning independent movement affected your life and work as a video/filmmaker?
The independent movement has made it easier for me to make my work more accessible to a wider audience.
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