Exit Through the Gift Shop

The street artist Banksy made this film of what he claims to be the true story of the Frenchman Thierry Guetta, alias Mr. Brainwash. Guetta, a great admirer of Banksy and his cohorts, starts off making a documentary about the street art scene. When it turns out he’s a useless filmmaker, however, Banksy takes the camera and makes the Frenchman his subject. Guetta’s interest in street art has turned into copycat behavior, making his own work in the public space under the pseudonym of Mr. Brainwash, “Because everything that I do, somewhere brainwashes your face.” Guetta’s career as a graffiti artist climaxes in a huge exhibition entitled in Hollywood. Since this documentary came out in 2010, questions have come up about the veracity of the events portrayed. And although nothing has ever been proven and Mr. Brainwash has had various subsequent exhibitions where his work sold for substantial sums, the suspicion persists that Banksy has been playing a sublime practical joke, thereby posing questions such as: What is real? What is art? What is authenticity? The fact that recently some of Banksy’s works have been ripped from walls and doors to be sold for big money makes this film all the more interesting.