Jon Reiss’s (“Better Living through Circuitry”) highly entertaining and energised film “Bomb It!” documents the rebellious life-force through which many talented and passionate individuals brighten or vandalise the world we live in, depending on our personal views, that being graffiti. Captivating in its tour of the walls of the world that highlights the obvious and unexpected impacts of the delinquent, socially maligned form of art, and covers both the pro-graffiti and anti-graffiti lobbies in an explosively inspired take on the history and future of the controversial artistic extreme that, or so it seems, is here to stay.

While the exact origin of the art form is debatable and will never truly be known, Reiss hands graffiti’s birth certificate to Philadelphia’s “Cornbread,” whose persistent need to write his name all over town gave him the title of “King of the Walls” in the late 60’s. From here, the movement made its way to underground New York City and its originator in the Big Apple happened to be a geeky “Taki 183” who travelled all over town tagging himself everywhere he could, much to the interest of the cities residents. And from here, it exploded into an almost unprecedented international phenomenon.

Each city in each country has its own reasons for why graffiti lives there, but the major similarity present in each vibrant testimony is that of social defiance. Visually astounding social defiance, exemplifying the line between notoriety and anonymity, and how a “bomber” or graffiti artist is able to achieve both by one simple expression of freedom – that could land them behind bars or dead. In Cape Town, South Africa, graffiti is said to have been a result of the need to protest the oppression brought on by Apartheid, and the visual remonstrations marked an important method of saying, or screaming, it all with the depiction of a simple image or phrase.

In São Paulo, Brazil, the swiftly increasing skyline is deemed unsightly by those who live among the visual pollution, and graffiti livens up the dull metropolis but also served as a powerful measure taken to counteract fascism in the ‘60s and ‘70s. In modern day Tokyo, Japan, where old school rules and regulations are still rampant, the “bombs” on the walls that line the formerly obedient streets of a city fast becoming modernised serve as simple acts of breaking free into a society where if one has a voice or an opinion, they are free to spray it. Striking murals and aural evocations are present, even if they definitely vary, in the various cities Reiss visits, also including Barcelona, Amsterdam, Berlin, London and Los Angeles.

The term “graffiti” comes with a large list of social stigmas attached to it, and the malleability of them is sharply deviated from in the doc, even though Reiss is obviously aware of them. When anything resembling defiance of authority makes its way into public domains, which graffiti no doubt has, ways and means are found to suppress the possibility of an uprising of sorts. So, graffiti was criminalised and deemed a gateway crime that could lead to more serious crimes that actually harm people, compared to, I don’t know, paint on walls. But if graffiti is sprayed onto the walls of public building, by definition belonging to the graffiti artists as well as “law abiding” citizens, should the allowance for the artists to be shut down be endorsed?

Again, personal opinion is all it takes to answer that question, and it is keenly examined in a free flowing debate in the doc. As the division between public and private space becomes more blurred as areas that rightfully belong to the public, regardless of class, regardless of social standing, regardless of race, sex, and education and so on, are continuously clamped down,. The doc never settles on an actual decision as to what the “right” way to deal with the situation is, because such an outcome would depend on the undoing of decades of tension and struggle that only separate the already damaged communities go through.

Another issue that doc spends a lot of time dissecting is that of the recent movement of graffiti moving into mainstream art, and the commoditization of the street art. Is graffiti still essentially graffiti if it no longer lives on in the streets and on the walls of concrete jungles, and takes its place on the canvas boards of upmarket art galleries? Does it still count as graffiti if the artist is able to make money from their endeavours? When it is no longer deemed a criminal offence and the thrill of getting caught diminishes, can it maintain its powerfully ability to enunciate the struggles of those unable to fit into a society where affluence and societal status denote the lives of those who have no choice but to wear the labels slapped onto them?

Enough voices are able to articulate all sides of the story that makes the argument both essential and captivating. Thought provoking in ways one would never expect, “Bomb It!” focuses on such a multi-faceted array of individuals, communities, lifestyles, opinions, choices and voices that it illuminates an the identity of an art form that was forged in the shadows where recognition may be the only way for those who crave it to get heard; being it through spraying it, burning it or bombing it.

Fatac Rating: ***½

Bomb It! Directed by Jon Geiss. Cinematography by Tracy Wares. Music by Disco D, Mathematics, Illfonics. Edited by Alex Marquez and Jessica Hernandez. Featuring: Cornbread, Taki 183, Zephyr, T-Kid 170, Pose II, Daim, Scage, Blek le Rat, Sixe, Os Gemeos, DJ Lady Tribe, Shepard Fairey, Chaz Bojorquez, Very One, Ron English, Faith 47. Running Time: 93 minutes. Age Restriction: TBC. Festival: Encounters ’08. Rating out of five stars. [B]