Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)

Director:

Banksy

Release Date:

5 March 2010 (Ireland)

Genre:

Documentary | Comedy

Tagline:

The incredible true story of how the world's greatest Street Art movie was never made...

Plot:

The story of how an eccentric French shop keeper and amateur film maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy...

Plot Keywords:

Artist | Graffiti Artist | Street Artist | Graffiti | Eccentric

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 16 wins & 12 nominations

Cast

Banksy	...	Himself
Mr. Brainwash	...	Himself (as Thierry Guetta aka Mister Brainwash)
Debora Guetta	...	Herself
Monsieur André	...	Himself
Zeus	...	Himself
Shepard Fairey	...	Himself
Ron English	...	Himself
Caledonia Curry	...	Herself (as Swoon)
Borf	...	Himself
Buffmonster	...	Himself
Steve Lazarides	...	Himself
Wendy Asher	...	Herself
Roger Gastman	...	Himself
Laurent Nahoum-Vatinet	...	Himself
Amanda Fairey	...	Herself
Romain Lefebure	...	Himself
Clemence Janin	...	Herself
David Healy	...	Himself
Celeste Sparrow	...	Herself
Derek Walborn	...	Himself
Adam Lawrence	...	Himself
Justin Murphy	...	Himself
Justin Saliman	...	Himself (as Dr Justin Saliman)
Sonja Teri	...	Herself
Grace Jehan	...	Herself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Rhys Ifans	...	Narrator
Space Invader	...	Himself
Christina Aguilera	...	Herself (uncredited)
Beck	...	Himself (uncredited)
Victor Borrayo	...	Himself (uncredited)
Angie Crouch	...	Herself (uncredited)
Mary Cummins	...	Herself - elephant inspector (uncredited)
Liam Gallagher	...	Himself (uncredited)
Noel Gallagher	...	Himself (uncredited)
Angelina Jolie	...	Herself (uncredited)
Jude Law	...	Himself (uncredited)
Jay Leno	...	Himself (uncredited)
Joshua Levine	...	Himself (uncredited)
Shaquille O'Neal	...	Himself (uncredited)
Brad Pitt	...	Himself (uncredited)
Alastair Stewart	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Tai	...	Elephant (uncredited)
Alex Thomson	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Directed by
Banksy

Produced by
Holly Cushing	....	executive producer
Holly Cushing	....	producer
Jaimie D'Cruz	....	producer
James Gay-Rees	....	executive producer
James Gay-Rees	....	producer
Melody Howse	....	assistant producer

Film Editing by
Tom Fulford
Chris King

Sound Department
Jim Carey	....	head of sound
Jack Gillies	....	supervising sound editor
Mark Henry	....	consulting sound supervisor
Mark Henry	....	sound mixer
Alan Sallabank	....	sound re-recording mixer
Grant Waters	....	sound

Visual Effects by
Adam Glasman	....	digital colourist
Aurora Shannon	....	digital intermediate assistant

Camera and Electrical Department
Eric Coleman	....	camera operator
Brian Cross	....	camera operator
Jerry Henry	....	camera operator
Todd Mazer	....	camera operator
Andy Phipps	....	camera operator

Editorial Department
Adam Eddy	....	on-line editor
Rob Farris	....	digital intermediate producer
Steve Harrow	....	post-production consultant
Nick Timms	....	technical operator

Music Department
Roni Size	....	composer: additional music (uncredited)

Other crew
Pablo Aravena	....	graffiti film archive
Lou Auguste	....	graffiti film archive
Keith Haskel	....	graffiti film archive
Dana O'Keefe	....	sales agent
George Pank	....	business affairs consultant

Thanks
Roa	....	special thanks
Vhils	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Paranoid Pictures

Distributors

• A-Film Distribution (2010) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Alamode Film (2010) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Avalon Distribución Audiovisual (2010) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Le Pacte (2010) (France) (theatrical)
• Mongrel Media (2010) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Parco Co. Ltd. (2011) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Producers Distribution Agency (PDA) (2010) (USA) (theatrical)
• Revolver Entertainment (2010) (UK) (theatrical)
• Sea Movies (2011) (worldwide) (theatrical) (ship)
• UPLINK Company (2011) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Madman Entertainment (2010) (Australia) (all media)
• Midas Filmes (2011) (Portugal) (all media)
• Mongrel Media (2010) (Canada) (DVD)
• Oscilloscope Pictures (2010) (USA) (DVD)
• P.F.A. Films (2010) (Italy) (all media)
• Videorama (2012) (Greece) (all media)

Other Companies

• Abramorama  Distribution and Marketing Consultant

Also Known As:

MPAA:

Rated R for some language

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:15 | Ireland:12A | USA:R (certificate #46044) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (British Columbia) | Australia:M | Germany:6 (f) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | Singapore:M18 | Japan:G | Portugal:M/6 | South Korea:12 | France:U

Filming Locations:

Disneyland Park, Disneyland Resort - 1600 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim, California, USA

Company:

Paranoid Pictures

Trivia:

Amongst the celebrities spotted at the film's first showing at the Sundance Film Festival were Adrian Grenier, Jesse Eisenberg and Jared Leto.

Quotes:

Thierry Guetta:[talking about meeting Banksy for the first time] It was magic that this person let me film, you know? I felt like I had the piece that will finish the puzzle. It was like getting something in the daylight that... what you see in the nightlight. He was even more than I expected; he was, like, just incredible; he was cool, he was... he was human, he was... he was... he was... he is, you know, he's really like a... what he represents, you know? He's really like a... I think he's really like a... I really liked him!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #1.3" (2011)

Soundtrack:

Tonight the Streets Are Ours

Fake, real, some weird combo. It doesn't matter much, which is... unique

Exit Through the Gift Shop, the first film directed by reclusive street-art legend Banksy, is a little puzzle-box of a documentary. It's perfectly designed and pitched to be enjoyable on multiple levels: on one as an entertaining, illuminating mini-history of "street art" and on another - one entirely more convoluted and entertaining - as a light-hearted "up yours" to both street artists and their patrons.

Ostensibly (to take the film's word for it) Banksy's film came about when he, as the premiere 21st Century graffiti art darling, was approached by Thierry Guetta, a French-born Los Angeleno. Guetta wanted to make a documentary about street art, and Banksy was the last major figure whose participation he felt he needed, as an affable personality, a love of video cameras and a chance relationship to Invader, a French street-art pioneer who networked with other artists like Shepard Fairey, had left Guetta with hundreds of hours of footage documenting the birth of the art.

After tracking Banksy down and shooting him working, Guetta retired to the cutting room. He emerged months later and showed it to Banksy. He didn't like the film, a couple of minutes of which are excerpted and are plainly terrible, and offered to take over Guetta's doc while Guetta returned to Los Angeles to turn himself into a street art sensation, named "Mr. Brainwash" or MBW. Transforming overnight from an affable, helpful documentarian to a one-man hype-monster artiste, MBW's enormous spraypaint cans, TV monsters and Warhol-style send-ups captured the attention of the LA art crowd, who spent over a million bucks on his stuff, much to the chagrin of Fairey and Banksy. Guetta's film about Banksy changes into Banksy's film about Guetta and street art, and the rise of a new unfortunate talent.

Except, as I and a lot of other folks believe, it's all made up. It's a hoax, it has to be, it's too hilariously perfect to be anything but. Banksy, as a street artist, has seen the perception of his works - by design temporary, and by design defacements - change from graffiti into art that needs preservation, that is cut out from walls and sold. Banksy, in making Exit Through the Gift Shop with Fairey and Guetta has found a way to deface, scrawl over and heap lighthearted disdain all over both himself and the people who snap up his art.

It's spectacular, it's brilliant and all the more so in that it's still a documentary, still a record of events. It's not artificial, not a mockumentary in the way that Spinal Tap is. MBW exists, having been created by Guetta or Banksy or both, and the film documents his arrival. Exactly who it is that arrives is the film's mystery.

Exit Through the Gift Shop captures the birth of a prank, an elaborate, entertaining gotcha that fits perfectly in Banksy's nose-tweaking, politically-aware, cheeky body of work. Moreover, the film doesn't rely on any rug-snapping-out to really work. It works if it's true, it works if it's not, because it's a construction that's above all entertaining. It's a glimpse, anyway, of a world that's built at night, by streetlight, one that's fascinating even if it is in the middle of pulling the wool over our eyes. It's genius, plain and (not so very much at all) simple.