Banksy Does New York is a documentary that basically shows how New York reacted when Banksy resided there for the month of October. The first thing that interested me was that no one has ever saw what Banksy looks like. He is a famous street artist, yet no one knows what he looks like. During the month he revealed new art everyday on the streets of New York. Throughout the documentary it shows interviews from art specialist or just Banksy fans. It especially uses videos from two Banksy fans who followed his art everyday throughout October. The whole video is mainly about following the art he did through the month, but it also lightly touched on other topics such graffiti and especially buildings that graffiti artists worked on. The documentary uses videos that other people posted on social media showing the art and how people reacted to it. For the most part you get idea the of how people felt about his work and you get to see most of the art he made before it was messed up or painted over. One interesting thing about Banksy is that he is a street artist and mostly known for his graffiti but some of the art he did throughout the video was more than just graffiti. For example, he hired someone drive a truck around New York having carrying animal puppets with their head sticking out of the truck. It was to show all the animals that people eat and how the animals were upset. Another thing he did was sculpt a Ronald McDonald and had it displayed in various McDonalds throughout New York. Since Banksy is a street artist I would not imagine him being a sculptor. One thing I felt about this documentary though was that is was a bit messy. I felt it was a little unorganized and over the place. You would go from day three and talking about the art he made that day to day five and an interview with some art specialist.It is interesting to see how people reacted to Banksy and his artwork. At one point, police were looking for him because graffiti is still illegal to do, and they were not happy with him doing it all around New York. On the other hand, people would go crazy for his work. For example, other graffiti artists would sign their name next to his artwork so when they see a Banksy, they see the other persons name and they get recognition. Also, people would steal his work. Banksy made a sculpture out of blocks and put it in front of someone’s work site and they took so they could sell it.
Banksy Does New York is pretty interesting for the most part. I think it was a subject for a documentary. It makes you want to keep watching to see what his next artwork is going to be. When Banksy revealed each work, he would have some audio that went along with it to give you some insight into what it meant. It was interesting to know what he was thinking when he was making his art. Although they did skip over a couple days, so you did not see what he did throughout the whole month of October. I think one thing that makes you keep watching also is to see if you find out what Banksy looks like. People not knowing what he looks like makes him someone you want to know more about him. But like I said in the paragraph before, I feel the documentary is unorganized. It is more just videos taken by other people put together rather than an actual documentary. An upside to it being videos though, it gives you a better idea of how people reacted and how people felt about him and his art. It makes it more real compared to professional making this documentary and maybe twisting some things or making it what it was not.
If you want to learn about Banksy, however, this would not be the movie for you. This is more for enjoyment than it is learning. You do not really get information on Banksy except where he is from and what he does. It focuses on just his time in New York and the art he did while he was there. Being able to really learn about him would be difficult anyways because most people don’t even know what he looks like. All in all, the documentary was a good movie to see if you want to experience being in New York during his time there and seethe art he did.
