God Is An Artist
2015 · 11m · USA
Directed by Dustin Guy Defa
Genres: documentary
Tones: contemplative, provocative
A Field of Vision documentary exploring graffiti and street art in Detroit following an artist's arrest, examining the city's contested definition of the boundary between vandalism and artistic expression as it negotiates its post-industrial identity.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
The Field of Vision platform — co-founded by Laura Poitras and Josh Begley — carries an implicit curatorial endorsement; Defa's treatment of a Detroit graffiti arrest as a meditation on art and civic legitimacy situates the film within a serious tradition of urban documentary.
Dustin Guy Defa on Detroit graffiti for Field of Vision. Defa is a real filmmaker and Field of Vision is the strongest doc-shorts platform of the era. Trust the names.
Dustin Guy Defa's Field of Vision short uses a Detroit graffiti arrest as a philosophical aperture onto post-industrial civic identity. Eleven minutes of journalistic discipline that refuses to resolve the tension it surfaces.