Mur Murs
Thematic In Process: Documenting Creativity
In brilliant color, director Agnès Varda surveys the murals of Los Angeles. Shooting the film in 1980, she trains her lens on the images that are remaking the city’s concrete walls into vibrant expressions of the people who live there. Moving across L.A., she frames the artists in front of their large-scale compositions. They look directly at the camera to introduce their murals and describe their motivations in painting them. Their words illuminate the ways in which the artworks reflect both their own and their neighborhoods’ stories. The murals act as mirrors to reflect how communities express pride and grief; they also bring community members together, sometimes to create the murals in unison. Threaded with Varda’s sensitive observations and melodic narration, Mur Murs leads the viewer through a glorious gallery of people and paintings that help us see how creative, and shared, an endeavor the transformation of public spaces can be. ST
Director
Agnès Varda
Producer
Agnès Varda
Editor
Sabine Mamou
Cinematographer
Bernard Auroux
Release Year
1981
Festival Year
2024
Country
France, United States
Run Time
82 minutes