Quality of Life
I can say, with absolute honesty, that I have not been this impressed with a movie since I was a little kid and saw Star Wars! It’s all San Francisco, it’s got heart for days! The title is “Quality of Life.” Not feelin’ it yet? Allow me to break it down for you.
What we have here is, an independent movie that was made in San Francisco, by people who have actually spent major portions of their lives in San Francisco. The story is set in the very same parts of the City that the movie was filmed in. It all goes down in San Francisco’s historic Mission District, the Bayview, and Bernal Heights. It was edited in the Mission.
Luis Saguar, who plays “Pops”, is an actor from the Mission. Another San Francisco based actor, Mackenzie Firgens, plays “Lisa” and plays her perfectly. Some of the people in this film, like Brian Burnam, who executes an inspired-by-life rendition of “Vain”, weren’t even actors, but they were living in San Francisco. The filmmakers wanted to pack as much San Francisco into this as they could.
Lane Garrison is a professional actor out of Los Angeles, straight up, and he plays the role of, “Heir”, the story’s lead. Nothin’ but props for him, he did it right. San Francisco’s D.J. Count set the musical score.
“Okay, what is the movie about?” people have often asked. The question is also simple, but the answer isn’t. That’s because this movie has a lot of levels to it and there’s a bunch on each one. At it’s surface it is about the friendship between a pair of talented young men whose culturally appropriate medium for creative self expression is a can of spray paint and just about any sizeable blank surface with a good degree of visibility during the day and, ideally, a lesser degree of visibility at night.
Unfortunately, theirs is actually a subculture and their painting the City with their names and their vision during the night, eventually brings them into conflict with the dominant culture’s guardian thugs, in this case S.F.P.D. who renders them unto the Hall of JustUs for due processing. After a week in jail and the Judge’s ass-chewing, they’re spat out of 850 Bryant to try to resume their newly impacted lives.
The aftermath gets harsh. That’s the story.
Then there are the messages. I’ve seen different people leave this film with different interpretations. I can’t know just what you’ll come away with, but you are very unlikely to come away completely untouched. For some folks this film will be a party, for others a trip down memory lane. For a lot of mainstream folks, I’m bettin’ it’s gonna be a real eye-opener! Police and Property Owners may say “ It’s nothing but a glorification of vandalism, two louts running the night”.
Activists and artists might respond with “It’s a Social Document, about some of the pressures we’re under and the releases we find”. With all the differing interpretations filtered out, however, it is what it is, a powerful movie, written and made from the heart, mainly by people who’ve lived it, been there, and yes, done that.
Many of the moments in the movie were adapted directly from the personal experiences, not of a single individual, but of a slightly larger community. It is a community defined partially by location and the time they were there. Many of their desires, concerns and challenges were ones common to all of humanity, as well as their own set of shared experiences and goals. Indeed, some of the challenges of making this movie were met, not by the film makers alone, but by their community of family, friends, artists and others. Those who had faith in these fledgling film makers, those who believed in their vision of a story framed in truth, were the ones to step up.
They stepped up with coin, for the film fund, and stepped up with donations of creations, for the art auction. They stepped up with words of encouragement, appreciation and love for these ones who would endeavor to convey a truth about community and the world, but from this community’s perspective this time, using their methods and tactics, while telling a rather intense story. It is a local community with a broad base and the community members backed this project to the bone. This just wasn’t gonna be, simply history as written by the conquerors, again.
For a work of fiction, this is as real as it gets.
Ya feelin’ it, yet? This is a movie by and about working class folks, not some Hollywood story of fighter pilots or fairy princess, and full of corporate endorsements.
This would be The People’s Movie, not The Establishment’s, a Social Document owned by the community who… Who said that? …somebody out there said “Graffiti,” who?
O.K. there are some sweet views of graffiti, from simple” tags” to impressive “pieces,” in this film. This story could not have been told without graffiti. This community could not have been represented honestly, nor could these neighborhoods have been portrayed accurately without graffiti. Graffiti plays an inextricable part in the story line, and is never far in the backdrop. One could’ve found a different, grafflitiless vehicle to carry a similar social statement perhaps, and then picked different times in the life of Pablo Picasso to parallel and proceeded to produce some other fine motion picture. Sure, one could’ve, and some probably have.
But to make this movie, telling this story, about these people, trying make it in this part of the world these days, could not have happened without Graffiti. However, and let me be completely clear here, this movie is not about graffiti.
It is about people who write it. If you were looking for a movie about graffiti in San Francisco, you’ll need to look elsewhere. Try looking at “Piece by Piece,” a documentary by Nic Hill. This story however, is very classically a human drama, in a contemporary setting. The humans here are hip and they hop to a shared beat.
It’s a beat of life, love and transition. These are human elements which steer this movie towards its finish. It’s a low gloss finish but it holds a graceful reflection of compassion, dignity and hope. Again, human elements because as I said before, it’s a human drama, a story about people more than anything else.
From jump city, it has been human elements that steered the shape of this story. One of the human elements that guided the making of this movie since its inception has been the director/writer Ben Morgan. He was aided by the intense humanity of writer/co-star Brian Burnam, and abetted by the crucial elements harbored within and around mid-wife/producer Brant Smith. This project was, unquestionably, a community-supported group effort, Equally unquestionable is that, the primary drive core of that group, has been Ben, Brant and most notably Brian, whose total contribution to the project, ultimately went far beyond what was originally planed.
Now that this project is “in the can” and with post-production primarily wrapped up, at last they have a real movie on their hands, (way more real than most,) with a great score, sound effects, an M.P.A.A. rating, and all those things. All but one—a distribution company. Like you might expect from as independently minded a crew as this one, they’re doing it themselves. From this point on until they make it or break it, they’re in self-distribution city. It’s all promoting, getting exposure, booking theaters, blood, sweat, and here come the tears, baby. It’s a massive undertaking. They are using the Internet, printed material (posters, flyers and placards) and relying heavily on a grassroots word o’ mouth based publicity effort. They are reinforcing these efforts with such old-school stunts as, having performers appearing at premiers and Q & A sessions with the film makers themselves, at many of the evening shows.
What? No, these guys couldn’t do any matinees. They have day jobs, remember? Ben is a case worker with at-risk youth, Brant is a techie and Brian works out of town.
(Learn more about the movie, and info on upcoming showings here)
Karl
