Quality of Life

Michael ''Heir'' Rose and Curtis ''Vain'' Smith are the most prominent graffiti writers in the whole of San Francisco's Mission District. They share the same love for their art as they do for their friendship. During the last ten years their pieces have grown to become a natural ingredient of the city's urban image. But it is not easy being a graffiti writer, especially if you are well known, always on the wrong side of the law, always an outcast from society. When the pair suddenly gets convicted, everything changes. Their artistic identities are at risk, but so are their friendships and their lives in general. They have to choose direction.
Quality of Life portrays the necessity of selfexpression in a society constituted by laws that prohibits that same expression. It is what Slam was to Spoken Word. With equal parts brutal honesty and social criticism, Morgan depicts the universal conditions for graffiti writers. At the same time the film is a personal and warm story about the nature of friendship and the constant uphill struggles of the working class, all captured in a cinema verite related mode.
Quality of Life was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2004, where it received a Special Mention.

ERIK AUGUSTIN PALM

Premiärstatus
Nordisk premiär: Medverkande
Lane Garrison, Brian Burnam, Luis Saguar: Producent
Benjamin Morgan: Manus
Benjamin Morgan: Foto
Kevin Robertson: Talat språk
English