It's the first film about graffiti and street art by women, a journey across twenty countries over eight years of urban exploration. Works and settings from fifteen cities around the world, glimpses of femininity within the graffiti community — a predominantly male one.
Women dedicated to graffiti in a world dominated by men: that is what 'Girl Power' is about, telling the stories of many female graffiti artists recorded over a long and intriguing journey. The director of this film, Sany, herself a graffiti artist from Prague, spent eight years offering us this new perspective on a phenomenon that the general public often regards as vandalism. Milano Film Festival allows us this year to also peek into this subculture and to meet Sany in person, in Milan.
Let's start with why you never let yourself be photographed with your face uncovered, but always hidden. Why?
Because in some of the places where we operate, as artists, graffiti is illegal.
Tell us about the boundary between illegal and legal.
We come from a country, the Czech Republic, where once, in the 1950s and 1960s, there was a regime in which a thousand things were forbidden. For my mother, listening to Western music was banned. It's true, I'll admit it — I feel that "illegal" doesn't always mean "wrong". Until last week, in Saudi Arabia it was illegal for women to drive…
In 'Girl Power' you focused on illegal graffiti, but legal graffiti also exists.
And it is just as strong, powerful, and interesting. I'll tell you more. There are some very large companies that, in order to start communicating with a new audience and in new languages, have turned to writers to create beautiful graffiti. And this is something I'm not only not against — I actually like it very much and look upon it favourably!
The film's title is 'Girl Power'. It means, of course, women becoming aware, gaining strength, gaining power. Let's break it down into its parts: girls and power. How do you define "power" — what is it for you?
For me, power means following your own dreams.
And a definition of "girl"?
Being a girl means doing things the way you feel. I do graffiti — it may well be true that the colour palette I use is richer, or different, from the one men use; I like pastel colours, I like pink, I never use dark brown or dark blue, but that doesn't justify any discrimination or any different treatment.
You travelled across twenty countries and recorded one hundred and fifty hours of footage. Did you notice a predominance of certain tones or colours in one part of the world over another, in one city or another?
That's a good question. You surprise me — you yourself are a… rainbow kind of person. You remind me of how people used to ask Michel Petrucciani, "Play me something blue"… And he, wow! Just for fun, we could say that New York is… red. Johannesburg, yellow and black. Toulouse is… dark blue. Berlin yellow and red. Moscow is grey, almost black. But they all have one thing in common.
What?
Rebellion. Those who do graffiti don't follow the rules. If the rule were black, graffiti artists would use pink.
During the never-ending journey to record 'Girl Power', did you come across graffiti with a declared, powerful social or environmental message?
Yes, we saw mushroom clouds and massacred trees. But I want to mention Panmela Castro, in Brazil, who paints walls in favelas and runs an organisation dedicated to helping girls who are victims of domestic violence. Her graffiti often depicts powerful scenes and messages like "Dad, don't do this to me".
The film, as well as here in Milan, has been screened in Berlin, Vienna, Toulouse and Seoul. What is the most common reaction it provokes — the emotion people leave the cinema with? Anger, indignation?
This film is about a particular subculture, so the people who attend are mostly people who are already interested in social issues and human rights, and already support the struggles for women's emancipation. So I would say that people leave… captivated.