GESSO the story of street painting
an independent cultural heritage film
GESSO the story of Streetpainting is an independently made cultural heritage film. The first documentary film project about the worldwide Street Painting scene.
The Story
GESSO is the first documentary film project about the worldwide Street Painting scene. Amazing visuals and international feat. artists tell you everything you need to know about this global art movement, giving you an unusual peek behind the scenes. GESSO documents the untold story - its past, present and future - of street painting for future generations.
SYNOPSIS
Since it's Renaissance in 1973, GESSO is the first feature film ever made about the phenomenon of Street Painting: A still very young and already diverse art form that has taken the urban world by storm over the last decade. It's not anything like Graffiti or other forms of Street Art. The works that street painters present to the public are engaging, mind blowing and fascinating, visual treats for the eye, and above all not meant to last. Not only that, you can witness the live creation of them (on meanwhile six continents, Antarctica for obvious reasons excluded), even their demise if you stick around long enough, have a chat with the artists while they work (how unusual), and be impressed by its positive social impact, it's global fan base, and more than interesting Life story.
Despite all this popularity and attention, and despite the omnipresence of internet and social media, there's still very little known about the ephemeral art form itself or the artists and festivals that are responsible for all this excitement. Other than liking the images we see online, which have an even shorter lifespan than the original ones. Most people, in fact, have actually never witnessed a street painting created live, right in front of their very own eyes. All the more reason to learn that there is really a lot more to Street Painting than the eye can see.
That's why GESSO takes you on a visual and personal journey to different countries and cultures, showing you a world of true and rare beauty. Giving you the inside scoop to the international Street Painting scene, and introducing you to some of the world's most renowned, dedicated and talented street painters of our time. They all come from very different social, cultural and artistic backgrounds, but are united by their passion for and contributions to pavement art. GESSO tells the story of street painting seen through their eyes and hands.
As artists they each embody part of the (his)Story of Street Painting, from it's origin 50 years ago in the little Italian village of Grazie di Curtatone, to the emergence of Anamorphic or 3D pavement art in the '80s and '90s, the global spread and rise to fame in the first decade of the 21st century, to the recent arrival of the next generation street painters that will undoubtedly take the art form to newer and higher levels, and to every remaining corner of the populated world...and beyond.
This unique film, shot over a time period of three years, in seven countries (mexico, usa, uk, holland, germany, italy and russia) portrays beauty and hardship, the importance of unattachment, societal relevance and individual inspiration, drive and perseverance. GESSO is a well-deserved tribute to Street Painters, Festivals and Fans worldwide. A document, with historical relevance, that marks the 40th anniversary of it's rebirth, and a sincere biography of an evolving and inspiring art form, told from an insider's perspective.
GESSO is a must see movie for everyone who ever held a chalk stick in their hands as a youngster, using the street as an obvious canvas, carefree and filled with unlimited imagination, simply because it was there. Who knew there's so much beauty in simplicity?
Screen GESSO at your event
SCREENING: INFO & GUIDELINES
Thank you for taking an interest in our documentary Gesso - The Art of Street Painting. This project has been a true labour of love over a period of 3,5 years. Independently filmed, financed and produced. We travelled to many countries and filmed many hours of raw material. And now we can share our film with the rest of the world!
We are offering free screenings to Chalk festivals and Street Art Events all over the world. If you are considering hosting a screening, that is really great! Still, there are a few things to take into acount beforehand:
* a private or public screening during your event.
* you can screen for free, You decide if the screening at your event is free to attend or if people have to pay for a ticket. If the latter, you can set your own ticket price as long as it is fair and affordable for everyone.
* we can provide you with a digital poster as well as a media kit (see below).
Documentary Specs & Mediakit:
The film's duration is 90 minutes and contains 5 spoken languages (English, Italian, Spanish, German and Dutch), and has English subtitles for the parts that are not spoken in English. It is possible to acquire a subtitled version of Gesso in your own language. This will take approx. 4-6 weeks for us to organize via our partner BroadcastText Int. It also comes with a fixed fee, being the costs of translating.
There are two ways to get the film in High Resolution. You can 1) live stream OR 2) download the film from our YouTube channel, we do NOT provide a DVD. The original file is 4GB (1920×1080px).
Download:
If you prefer the download option, we will provide you with a temporary password to login on our YouTube account (see below). Here is one way how to download the film from YouTube:
The common way of using the free YouTube downloader: open SaveFrom.net and enter the URL address of the webpage you want to download from into the field on the top of the page. Click the "Download" button on the right and you will get the list containing all available links. Choose a format and download.
Donations:
We do not charge for you screening the film. That's why we will make it available on YouTube. If you like to support this cultural heritage project please contact Peter at hello@streetpeter.com.
Promoting your screening session:
You are essentially free to promote the film as you see fit within certain parameters, via online and printed media. And with the aid of materials we provide you with: official movie trailer link, digital movie poster, a selection of movie stills, mediakit, and other content. Just drop us a line. You should announce your screening as a local event.
Disclaimer:
GESSO the art of streetpainting 2014-2025 (C) All rights reserved. Use without permission is illegal. Unauthorized use, copy, editing, reproduction, broadcasting, duplication and/or distribution of this documentary is not allowed. Permission is required for copy. In addition, you are not to sell any of our imagery, including printed posters, movie stills etc. Nor to show or make the film available after download, before, during or after your event to third parties without our consent.
Previous Screenings
* Local/private/event screenings (listing not complete):
- Cinema Little Italy Film Festival, La Jolla (USA).
- Festival D'art Public / MuralFestival (CAN).
- Murmansk – FrescoFest 2015 (RUS).
- Alberta South, Medicine Hat – The Sunshine Chalk Art Festival (CAN).
- Kayenta Street Painting Festival (USA).
The Makers
Peter Westerink, Founder of Planet Streetpainting, teamed up with independent Dutch filmmakers ColdSun Productions (Alessio Cuomo and Sander de Nooij) to document this cool and increasingly popular art form in a feature film for the first time since its renaissance more than 50 years ago in Grazie di Curtatone, Italy.
Through a set of diverse characters the documentary explores the rise of the worldwide Movement of street painting. The artists range from Gennaro, a traditional 'madonnaro', who wanders the urban landscape of his hometown Napoli in search for crowds willing to leave him some coins for his pavement art, to Master Artist Kurt Wenner the inventor of modern day 3D street painting.
In intimate portraits we explore their dreams, we get an insight in their day-to-day lives and reveal the rarely seen beauty of these artworks being made. The film portrays beauty and hardship, the importance of unattachment, societal relevance and individual inspiration, drive and perseverance.
Producer's statement / Peter Westerink
"An inspiration turned into a passion. That passion gradually transformed into a profession. A profession driven by passion."
"Why make a documentary about streetpainting?" I guess that is the question I am trying to answer here. I discovered, if one can call it that, street painting more than 20 years ago, when friends offered to take me to the San Rafael Youth In Arts Italian Street Painting Festival while I was vacationing in California. Apparently it was an annual chalk event slash fund raiser that took place over the weekend, had been around for a few years already, offered great art, food and live music, and over the years attracted thousands of people. So my friends thought it would be cool for me to go and see for a couple of hours. Little did they know….
The festival venue covered just two streets, basically one block, which actually had been repaved a few days before with a smooth and thin top layer of asphalt, for optimal chalk conditions. Never saw such a thing. But not much of that clean, pristine asphalt was still visible by the time we arrived. Literally hundreds of street painters of all ages were working hard to make sure every inch of these streets would be covered with a great variety of colours, inch by inch, as if working on one giant quilt. What a truly amazing spectacle that was.
Mind you, this was over two decades ago. In a time before social media, before smart phones, and before digital photography. Even before 3D came into fashion. I was so impressed with what I saw, I must have been, that I almost forgot to take pictures with my analogue camera. I only took maybe 5 or 6. I have the photo negatives to prove it. Nevertheless, the memory of that visit is still very vivid after all these years. I found the experience truly inspiring, such great craftsmanship, huge masterpieces created over the course of two, three days, with only soft pastels, and above all, not intended to last. Just something to be enjoyed in the here and now, and for as long as the event lasted.
The day after the festival the local Fire Dept. made sure the streets were clean and pristine again, as if nothing amazing at all had happened. But something had happened. I had actually fallen in love with this beautiful, quite unknown and yet strangely familiar art form, and really wanted to share this inspiration somehow with the people on my side of the world, after my return to the Netherlands. And that's what I did, and have been doing ever since.