Exit Through the Gift Shop

2010 "The world's first Street Art disaster movie"
7.9| 1h27m| R| en| More Info
Released: 16 April 2010 Released
Producted By: Oscilloscope
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Banksy is a graffiti artist with a global reputation whose work can be seen on walls from post-hurricane New Orleans to the separation barrier on the Palestinian West Bank. Fiercely guarding his anonymity to avoid prosecution, Banksy has so far resisted all attempts to be captured on film. Exit Through the Gift Shop tells the incredible true story of how an eccentric French shop keeper turned documentary maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner.

Genre

Documentary

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Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) is now streaming with subscription on AMC+

Director

Banksy

Production Companies

Oscilloscope

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Exit Through the Gift Shop Audience Reviews

Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Wordiezett So much average
Portia Hilton Blistering performances.
Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Steve Pulaski Whether or not Exit Through the Gift Shop is an authentic documentary, showcasing real-life events without a hint of fabrication or mockumentary-esque sentiment, I cannot say and I'm not prepared to wrap my brain around the multitude of justifications and possibilities. What I am prepared to do, however, is talk about what a visceral and entertaining experience Exit Through the Gift Shop is, and how its effective use and depiction of street art and the politics of street artists is something that deserves your attention. In a film that predicates itself off of portraying and capturing "art terrorists" in the action, and the limitless creative ways they can express themselves, this documentary works to be both an unabashed plunge inside an underground community, as well as a beautiful iteration of something many of us probably took for granted or didn't quite look at so deeply before.Shot by an English street artist who goes by the name of "Banksy," and also assisted by Shepard Fairey, another street artist who is responsible for creating Barack Obama's animated, red/blue campaign image for his 2008 election campaign, Exit Through the Gift Shop chronicles the life of Thierry Guetta, a quirky Frenchmen living in Los Angeles who, since he can remember, shot and recorded everything that occurred in his life. No matter where he went or what he did, Thierry was always armed with a camera and collected thousands of tapes with unique footage stored on them. One thing Theirry was always fascinated with was street art, and learned that one of Los Angeles's most prolific street artists, a man named "Space Invader," who goes around tagging images around town of characters and sprites from video games, is one of his cousins.This sparks a sudden interest in Thierry to begin documenting street artists in Los Angeles. Street artists are known as people that go around town illegally spray-painting, posting, or sticking images in public places. Often times it's taking traditional graffiti and vandalism to the next level by having enormous thirty-feet by forty-feet prints of quirky images plastered on the sides of brick buildings, drawing a countless number of eyes onto your work. Thierry winds up getting in touch with both Fairey and Banksy, and before long, after tirelessly following them around and capturing their process, gets the urge to make his own art under the name "Mr. Brainwash" (MBW), a name he gets from having the desire to infest the minds of who sees his work with his elaborate art involving everything from exaggerated images of celebrities, Warhol-style interpretations and manipulations of popular culture, to images made up of barcodes that distort and render the image into a series of parallel lines if you observe them from a close distance.Through intense marketing by inspiring word of mouth through the Los Angeles area, and requested promotions via Banksy and Fairey, Guetta goes from an underground oddity to a mainstream sensation almost overnight, so much so that he begins crafting an art show so he can sell some of his own works. His inspiration to host a show comes after Banksy creates a storm of positive reception and sales by selling his eclectic street-art at a wild, unconventional art show of his own. This is where the politics of street art begin to conflict. Can one really say that Guetta and Banksy's work, at that point, adheres to the basic principles of underground, illegal art? When something becomes commercialized or licensed, often the authenticity and the roots of the work is compromised, and through Guetta's strives towards fame and acceptance, the concept of boasting "real" street art is almost entirely lost on him.Banksy and crew present this progression so subtly that you might miss it. For example, when the film concluded, I felt a sort of malice and anger towards Guetta for reasons I couldn't adequately summarize. Most films or documentaries that make you detest a person leave you with the ability to summarize that person pretty cogently upon finishing the film, but with Guetta, who is so fundamentally interesting and layered, it took me a significant amount of time to pinpoint what exactly about him and his ways infuriated me. With contemplation, I realize I didn't necessarily hate or dislike him, but seriously pitied him.Here was a person with such a passion and love for what he did, shooting countless hours of video and following around street artists, that he got so invested he wound up exploiting both for monetary and societal gain, in turn, losing the core thesis of what those ideas, particularly the latter, usher in for people and a neglected subculture.What we're left with is Exit Through the Gift Shop, a film with a pulse and a sense of urgency. A film that reminds us of the fluidity and nonlinear capabilities of art, while showing us that it retains an inherent purity unless it is wrongfully utilized or manipulated by people. By having a clear emphasis on the eclectic and the silenced, and helmed by three truly unique and revolutionary artists, who take their voices to the streets to risk it all, real or not, authentic or fabricated, Exit Through the Gift Shop bears ideas that make it almost impossible to ignore. How many potentially fabricated documentaries can you say that about? Directed by: Banksy.
SnoopyStyle Banksy directs a documentary about Thierry Guetta who immigrated from France in 1999. He opened a trendy vintage clothing shop in L.A. He is constantly filming with his video camera. He discovers his cousin is street artist Space Invader which turns into a more in-depth obsession with other street artists. Invader connects him with Shepard Fairey which leads to other artists. He gets intrigued with the secretive Banksy. He films Banksy and then Banksy turns the camera on him.There is a fun energy about this. It feels guerrilla secretive outsider work. Then the question becomes whether this is real or fake or semi-real. It colors the movie for me. In the end, this is another form of street art. It doesn't have to follow any demands of a documentary. I took the whole movie with a grain of salt. It doesn't mean it's bad. I just wish this is a more definitive solid movie about Banksy.
PopCulturedwithMovieMike Exit Through The Gift Shop is the Inception of the documentary genre. Like Inception, which dealt with a dream-within-a-dream plot and posed questions about what was real and what wasn't, Exit Through The Gift Shop does the same thing. It's like a documentary within a documentary and it's never quite clear if the whole thing is just one big hoax or if it's all real. I'm not really sure what else to say about this truly original documentary. It's not often I'm at a lose for words after I finish a movie, but that was the case with Exit Through The Gift Shop. For those that are unfamiliar with the plot, I will try to take a crack at it. Thierry Guetta is an amateur filmmaker who stumbles into the underground world of street art. While traveling around the world documenting some of the most talented street artists, Thierry decides to take the footage and make a documentary. The only problem is that he has no idea what to do with the literally hundreds of hours of footage. Once Thierry finally sits down to edit the film, he produces a long, almost unwatchable series of images that made no sense whatsoever. Guetta soon shows the finished product to Banksy, who is considered one of best and enigmatic artists on the underground scene, and he very kindly lets Thierry know that it's garbage and it doesn't show the true artistic expression of street art. Banksy tells Thierry to leave him the footage so he can put something together. With the film out of his hands, a funny thing happened to Theirry. Instead of just documenting street artists, he becomes one himself. The rest of the film chronicles Guetta as he builds his art business, selling some of this "street art" for thousands of dollars. Guetta took street art, something that he fell in love with, and turned it into a commercial enterprise. But by doing so, he essentially loses the spirit of the art. Street art isn't about fame or fortune, it's about expressing yourself and this is where Guetta fails to become a true artist. Or does he? Maybe the whole film is one big hoax to show how subjective art is and a commentary on what should or shouldn't be considered art. If you are a fan of documentaries, Exit Through The Gift Shop should be your first stop. I have zero interest in the world of street art and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Learning about street art was very informative, but the true star of the film is Guetta. A captivating and enthralling person if there ever was one. Real or fake, Exit Through The Gift Shop is a great film. So much for not knowing what to say, huh?
Jackson Booth-Millard Street art, or more accurately street graffiti has become an elaborate phenomenon, and part of the public consciousness because of the controversial but highly valuable works of the anonymous Banksy, and I was really looking forward to watching a film made by the man himself. This documentary directed by England-based graffiti artist Banksy is not specifically about himself, his political activism and his art, but how another street artist came to meet him and make his name. Eccentric French shop keeper Thierry Guetta was originally an amateur filmmaker, who carried a camera everywhere he went and filmed absolutely everything, storing all footage on hundreds of unwatched tapes, and with no explanation. But then he had a purpose for filming when he spotted street art happening right in front of him, and fascinated he decided to follow the various artists, many using pseudonyms, and film them in work making their conceptual and most intriguing spray paint and sticker based art works around city and town buildings. Artists he followed, that have become famous for their works, included Space Invader, Seizer, Neck Face, Sweet Toof, Cyclops, Ron English, Dotmasters, Swoon, Azil, Borf and Buffmonster, but the one artist he was desperate to meet, having become famous globally for his thought-provoking and most recognisable artworks was Banksy. Guetta tried in a few ways to get hold of him, but it looked hopeless, but then he got a phone call wanting his help for a new art piece, and he rushed straight to his aid, and they worked together many times afterwards. In their time together he assisted Bansky with an art gallery where the public could view various conceptual pieces indoors, included a controversial painted living elephant, but also they almost got arrested when putting a dummy dressed as a dangerous criminal from Guantanimo Bay in Disneyland. It is when Guetta decided to become a street artist himself that he found a way to make a name for himself, and he created many of his own artworks under the pseudonym Mr. Brainwash, and of course creating his own gallery for the public, and he has since gone on to tremendous success, including the brilliant design of Madonna's Greatest Hits album Celebration (which I have). Narrated by Rhys Ifans, with contributions from Debora Guetta (Thierry's wife) and the various artists and art critics. It is a fascinating story of how a man could go from filming with no purpose or reason, finding something meaningful to film, and then of course going on to fame and fortune. This film is brilliant for displaying the other various street artists I may otherwise have not known about, the many works or Banksy and Mr. Brainwash that feature are wonderful pieces, I don't like all graffiti, but when you look at these works they are magnificent and absolutely deserve recognition as valuable art, it is perhaps questionable as to how much of this film is true and how much is made for artistic effects, but it is a fantastic documentary. Very good!