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This was not an act of destruction or vandalism.
This is about art.
This is eNtR Berlin On The Beat
outside the Babylon cinema in Mitte.
Today is the premiere,
or rather second premiere,
of a graffiti film called Unlike U.
The film documents the Berlin graffiti scene
over seven years, particularly the train writers,
until Berlin Public Transport filed a suit.
"This is illegal graffiti." That's true,
but the documentary wasn't,
so they won the case
and tonight is the second premiere.
I have two tickets. Follow me.
They are the filmmakers. Film them, dude.
Unlike U doesn't mean I don't like you,
it means being different.
The protagonists of our film are different.
FILMMAKER
We are also different in the way
we approach projects. Hence the name.
Have you ever painted graffitis?
No.
What's your connection with the scene?
We were interested in the scene
because we liked the subject itself,
FILMMAKER
that is train writing and everything involved.
We had a few people in our circle of friends
who had contacts within the scene
so that we were able to get in touch
with those guys.
We wanted to portray the best
of the best of the train writers
and we succeeded in doing so after a while.
How long was it until they trusted you enough
to say, you can have our material
and then you went along
and filmed them yourselves?
Seven years sounds like a long time
for a documentary, but I have to say
that we didn't spent our entire time on this.
The sprayers were very suspicious
as they gain nothing from talking about
what they do. First of all, we posed a threat.
You asked if we went along
and sure, that's an attractive idea,
but would we have had the guts
is another question.
But we didn't get the chance to go along.
The good thing is it's a very transient art.
People might see it for a few days or not at all.
Then you only have a picture or video.
So the scene documents itself. We profited
from this coz we were given great material.
Here is one of the film's protagonists.
His name is Skim.
Your verdict? Is the film any good?
At first I was worried the film would be
a standard thing like the rest of them.
The rest is a documentation at the most.
But they did a really good job.
They say in the film that Berlin
is the European capital of graffiti
or train writing, the New York of Europe.
What's special about Berlin?
Berlin is special
because it has an amazing number of facets,
there are so many different people
showing so many different styles
you can only be inspired.
What would you do when in 15, 13, 17 years
your son comes up to you and tells you,
Dad, I'm off spraying now.
Will you say, look, steal your spray can here
or watch out there or will you stop him?
I would never stop him.
I was banned from doing it when I was young.
That's exactly what young people
in puberty rebel against.
I'd say, do it.
Do what you feel like, but if you get caught,
I'll give you hell. I wouldn't stop him.
But I wouldn't encourage him, either.
Coz I know it's dangerous
and if it was my son standing near
an electrical track and he could potentially die,
I wouldn't encourage that.
So Berlin Public Transport, the BVG, sued you
coz they said it's illegal, they're our trains.
Legally speaking
it was about us using recordings
which were made on BVG property
and showed BVG property.
We made a film about a subculture
which sprays trains.
It's a media that can be painted on,
and you could say that there is
a public interest in this,
so it's not just about art,
but about freedom of opinion and press.
We're glad that they can't censor you
for reporting on a subject
which may not be to everyone's taste.
You're in the film, you saw it,
a graffiti legend in Berlin.
What's so special about Berlin's graffiti?
That the wall is gone,
but instead something else
has blossomed here, it's amazing.
Graffiti always moves on.
You can't put cameras
in underground train ducts
and think they would stop people.
Thank you for this conversation.
Subtitles by Stephanie Geiges