After two decades of being subjected to graffiti-related media and the selling of graffiti lifestyle merchandise (from clothing to overpriced “bomber’s” spray-paint), I have rarely been satisfied with how graffiti writers are depicted or marketed to as a consumer group (or themselves packaged for the consumption by a mainstream and often hostile society). But Bomb-It is among the very few media depictions of graffiti writers and their lifestyles that does not evoke laughter from a true writer nor disgust from someone who cares about due respect for true practitioners. This documentary is a real depiction of how real writers operate in and around the very real spaces of real cities. The artistic fluff and varied cliché opinions are cut out to make room for what graffiti writers have to say about their own tactics, dilemmas, transgressions, and motivations. The film is not selling graffiti as much as it is sharing the lifestyle with viewers who are asked to neither romanticize nor condemn it. Instead, this film is simply a view of parts of the city, and even parts of the world, that most of us will never experience first hand. As a graffiti writer and an academic I enjoyed this movie as it was done intelligently as well as realistically.
-Stefano Bloch
