Upper Playground is at it again with a new documentary called ‘Dirty Hands’ chronicling the life and times of renowned street artist David Choe. This documentary is over 8 years in the making and features an in-depth look into the artist David Choe has grown to be. Says Upper Playground:
“Director Harry Kim spent eight tumultuous years following a young near-schizophrenic street artist, David Choe, who devises numerous criminal schemes that make it possible for him to hitchhike across the globe. Choe skirts the legal constraints of society to “freely” create his art. His nonchalant law-breaking style lands him in jail several times, leading to his eventual demise in solitary confinement in a Tokyo prison cell. He resurfaces with a radically religious agenda and returns home with hope to overcome his criminal temptations and repair his severed relationships.
The filmmaker (who has been friends with Choe since they met at the Korean-American teenage summer camp in 1990) captures the complexity of David’s life though a collage work of archived childhood home videos, still photographs, intimate artwork, animation, and eight years of footage shot on the road with the artist.
DIRTY HANDS premiered at the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival, and it won the Grand Jury Prize at the San Diego Asian Film Festival. The film also screened at the Hawaii International Film Festival and the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.”
Dirty Hands opened in Los Angeles on April 30 and will run until May 6 at Laemmle Sunset 5 Theater in West Hollywood. The film premiers in San Francisco on May 21st at the Roxie Theater. Check the Upper Playground website for details and be sure to head out to the theaters this month if you’re in California to support another solid project from UP. Check the trailer for the film after the jump.