‘People look at us and they see the stereotype, “they’re this, they’re that…they’re scumbags”. You’ve got to show them how good you are, you’ve got to whip out a tune that they couldn’t write in their dreams.’ Git
This documentary asks whether art and artistic expression can allow us to look beyond the facts of someone’s past and see into their soul. Git, Costello and Willa Lee are street poets, hip-hop artists and songwriters from north Dublin. For these young men self-expression in the form of poetry, rap and song has become a spiritual experience. Their aim is simply to articulate the chaos that surrounds them and to fight it with their words and voices alone. Along the way it has become their identity, their religion and, as they claim themselves, they are its high priests.
In the end, the place where they live and their words are one and the same, constantly in flux, full of darkness and light. It is proof that these suburbs – that have bred darkness, murder and hate – have also inspired poetry and these unlikely artists are using words alone to fight back.
Reel Art is an Arts Council scheme designed to provide film artists with a unique opportunity to make highly creative, imaginative and experimental documentaries on an artistic theme.
