Metro Cinema Society: Roadsworth: Crossing the Line

Roadsworth: Crossing the Line

Canada 2008, 72 min, Dir: Alan Kohl

The Edmonton Arts Council, the City of Edmonton Capital City Clean Up program, and the National Film Board are pleased to present this screening of Roadsworth: Crossing the Line.

Edmonton, like most cities, has its share of street art and graffiti. Last year the City of Edmonton embarked on an intensive campaign to clean up illegal graffiti and embraced a new master plan for public art, which identifies the value in legal street art. Using Roadsworth: Crossing the Line as a springboard for discussion, a panel, representing a range of perspectives, will explore the questions that arise when artists intervene in public space. What is the difference between street art, graffiti, and sanctioned forms of public art? What role does street art play in the life of a city? And when is it art and when is it vandalism? Please join us for what promises to be an exciting discussion about this complicated urban topic.

For more info about the partners involved in this presentation, please visit us online: Edmonton Arts Council, www.nfb.ca/roadsworth, Capital City Clean Up, Graffiti Management Program.

Roadsworth: Crossing the Line details a Montreal stencil artist’s clandestine campaign to make his mark on the city streets. Hailed as an "artist's artist" by the Wooster Collective, Roadsworth began to play with the language of the streets, overlaying city asphalt markings with his own images: a crosswalk became a giant boot print, vines choked up traffic dividers, and electrical plugs filled parking spots. Each piece begged the question, Who owns public space? As he is prosecuted at home and celebrated abroad, Roadsworth struggles to defend his work, define himself as an artist and address difficult questions about art and freedom of expression.

Free admission.

Director Alan Kohl will be in attendance.