DIRTY HANDS: The Art & Crimes of David Choe
June 7th, 2012 by chocko
Director: Harry Kim
Genre: Documentary
This documentary is about a passionate Korean-American artist named David Choe who travels the world, gets paid to be a fool and creates art inspired by graffiti, comic books and porn. Choe’s friend, Harry Kim, documented him for eight years to create a portrait of the artist while capturing his formative years, hustling for recognition in the art world.
DIRTY HANDS is a manic tale told with videos from childhood, animation, footage from every corner of the globe and introspective interviews. The movie isn’t in any real chronological order…right from the start we find Choe in the jungles of the Congo in search for dinosaurs. From there we follow Choe, a self proclaimed man-child as he shoplifts, creates his outlaw art on an unapologetic path of criminality and destruction.
There are many highlights in the 2008 documentary…one memorable scene finds Choe working on a piece and then punching himself in the face repeatedly until the blood dripping from his nose on to the canvas becomes used as paint. There are a lot of funny moments to keep the viewer entertained including the scene where he tells the story of how he got arrested for forgery and got slapped around by a bunch of cops. I enjoyed the scenes where he spray paints Munko, Choe’s signature bucked-tooth whale, on the streets of Los Angeles at night.
A turning point for the young artist happens during a trip to Japan where he punches an undercover police officer and is arrested for 3 months. With little or no contact with his family and friends, Choe survives prison with the help of his art which he creates in his sketch books with limited resources…pens, soy sauce and urine. Choe also discovers Christianity while in solitary confinement but it is his “dirty” art and relentless, driving force to create that ultimately and truly saves him.
I met David Choe at the San Diego Comic Con way back in 1999 where he sold me a copy of his book, Slow Jams. He was so friendly and easy to talk to. I didn’t buy one of the shirts he was trying to sell me. I believe it had Snake Eyes of G.I. Joe holding a boombox on the front of the shirt! He did draw a sketch of me which is a favorite in my collection. I’ve been a huge fan of Choe’s mind-blowing art ever since. I really enjoyed DIRTY HANDS and can’t wait to see it again. You should definitely check it out!
DIRTY HANDS will be screening during the Korean American Film Festival New York on Thursday June 7 9:30pm at Anthology Film Archive (32 Second Avenue NYC). That’s tonight! DVDs will be available for purchase.
Tags: david choe, dirty hands, documentary, kaffny 2012, movie, review
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