F.O.B.

ANIMATION

dark
nights
is design ready

FILM

for its close-up?
If Helvetica opened the doors to a
mass audience for design, three new
films are taking it one step further.

The terror that lurks in the heart of the world’s

forced him to master the art of compromise and

edgiest graphic artists is on display in the ani-

try some new techniques. “We used the Toy

mated horror anthology Fear(s) of the Dark. The

Story program,” he says. “I don’t even know the

French-made independent film, which opens in

right term for it.” Each of the six segments is

Megunica, directed by Lorenzo Fonda,

November, brings to life the disparate, night-

drawn in black-and-white and voiced by French

megunica.com

marish visions of Marie Caillou, Richard McGuire, actors; they range from Caillou’s haunted school-

STORY: Four friends take a Latin American

Pierre di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti, Blutch, and

girl fable to Di Sciullo’s geometric abstractions.

road trip and paint walls.

ELEVATOR PITCH: The Motorcycle Diaries

Charles Burns (above). “One thing about comics is The two-year endeavor gave Burns—whose

with graffiti

you really can control them completely,” says

acclaimed Black Hole, a saga of teenage sex, mul-

STARRING: Street artist Blu, who never shows his

PRODUCTIONS

Burns, who is making his filmmaking debut

lets, and mutation in 1970s Seattle, is in Holly-

face but reveals the inside of his sketchbook

RI YL: Diego Rivera

LINEA

with a disturbing tale of insect love based on one wood development—a welcome chance to polish

of his early comics. But the 3-D animation process work from his backlog. “Every cartoonist has a

PRIMA

that was used to create his 20-minute segment

skeleton in the closet,” he says. STEVE DOLLAR

©

IMAGE

GRAFFITI

the long and short
arm of the law

BURNS

Died Young Stayed Pretty, directed by

CHARLES

Eileen Yaghoobian, diedyoungstayedpretty.com

LEGAL

STORY: How Gigposters revived the rock-

poster movement

(RIGHT);

ELEVATOR PITCH: Jubilee with silk-screen

STARRING: Brian Chippendale, Jeff Kleinsmith,

Jay Ryan, Frank Kozik, Jesse LeDoux

ILLEGAL

RI YL: Art Chantry

MCGLYNN

GAVIN

(LEFT),

What would happen to Banksy, whose identity was revealed this summer, if the law finally caught

him? Three recent cases from the past year offer three options. On August 19, Chinese authorities

JACKSON

arrested Graffiti Research Lab’s James Powderly before he could create a light show that would spell

KIM

out “Free Tibet” at the summer Olympics; after six days, he was deported to the U. S. The same day,

OF

New York and Chicago police arrested alleged graffiti-writing couple Utah and Ether on charges

of criminal mischief and possession of graffiti materials. Less than a week later, as revelers inside the

Objectified, directed by Gary Hustwit,

objectifiedfilm.com

Democratic National Convention waved Shepard Fairey’s “Hope” poster and vendors sold bootleg

COURTESY

STORY: What do the objects we design and buy

versions on the street, Fairey himself was nabbed while wheatpasting posters in a Denver alley—

say about us?

a little extracurricular activity after a legal art show in support of Barack Obama and the DNC. Fairey

ELEVATOR PITCH: Helvetica for the I. D. set

IMAGES

STARRING: Andrew Blauvelt, Jonathan Ive, IDEO,

was fined $140 and given a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while he sat in the temporary detention

Paola Antonelli, the Bouroullec brothers

center (dubbed “Gitmo on the Platte”) erected for DNC-related misbehavior. CALEB NEELON

RI YL: Anything by Eames