DVD Unlike U – Trainwriting in Berlin !
More about Unlike-U dvd
Today is thursday, half past three in the morning. I am awake. The fourth night in a row. The alarm is set for half past one, so, out of bed. Cold? Tired? Never mind. I need to get out. I need to know when the guards are doing their rounds. We want to make the project colorful, but we need to know, when these suckers take a break. That‘s part of it. Here we are meticulous. Here we are careful. Everything else would be dangerous. No mails, no mobiles. Everything face to face. The SoKo is everywhere. They want our ass, but we are smarter. Smart, fast and careful.
At work everyone keeps asking if I am sick. I have shadows under my eyes. This week I have maybe slept 12 hours all up. All this for 15 minutes. Now we know, when we can hit. All this for one train. 15 minutes have to be enough. Then the train will be colorful and off. Maybe then I will be able to sleep again. But then again, the next train will be waiting. That‘s how it goes. That‘s how it always goes. No sleep Till Brooklyn. Just on the run.!‘
What makes adolescents and even grown men want to spend the nights out? What makes them trick cameras, surveil the guards and risk money penalties and even prision? What makes someone invest tonnes of money in spray cans without ever getting anything in return apart from some form of honor or appreciation from a very limited circle of people? UNLIKE U melts into a scene, which for outsiders, is hard to comprehend. The world of trainwriters, those spray paint artists who specialize in painting trams and underground trains. Extremely undercover. Extremely criminal. Extremely forbidden. UNLIKE U portrais four generations of sprayers in Berlin, of which the oldest of the hardcore artists is already over 40 years old, while the youngest are around 17. All protagonists have one thing in common. Each one has sprayed countless trains in their lives, some of them even over a 1000.
Through intensive interviews the film makers aim to understand the motives of sprayers, what drives them to commit a crime which has no recognition in the public domain and is according to offical documetation an act of willfull damaging of property , and furthermore, painted trains get taken out of service as quickly as possible. The probability therefor, that the artist ever gets to see his project as a driving screen is next to none. What then, makes this action worthwhile? How does the artist find self- fulfillment? What makes the artists tick?
The film makers Henrik Regel and Björn Birg dive deep into the universe of the trainwriters. Next to first class interviews, they received material, which has never been screened before. The film investigates background information to specific actions and historical material from the legendary corner on the Friedrichstrasse. The place to meet for sprayers since the 90ies. The place where the legend of the Berlin Writerculture had its origins.
In this sense, UNLIKE U is not a normal Spray Painting Video, in which action after action and train after train get shown, rather the Video is a sympathetic portrait of a scene which has never been shown like this before. This film writes the fascinating story of a culture, which usually aims to exist undercover, but exhibits all the characteristics of an art historical movement with all its spacial and periodic developments. The film makers have worked on this documentation for over 7 years and have thus established a good relationship in the scene, which can be decribed as a ,closed party‘. Never the less the film makers never loose the required dis- tance to the topic and demonstrate the flipside of the sprayer existence, one of social isolation, loss of reality and even suicide.
The constant fear of getting caught. The paranoia, which can grow into a full blown persecution complex, and how it leaves its traces in the lives of the sprayers is also documented. The world of underground train tracks and surveilled train stations is not only a criminally dangerous turf, but the danger of being attracted and sucked into the hole of adrenaline, fear and a sworn in group is much greater. Therefor some of the protagonists and their art are actually lost. Gone forever.
The intensity with which these artists live their passion is fascinating, but the film also shows the radical determination which one needs to poses in order to lead this lifestyle. Out every night, at half past one, just so you maybe know when the security guards do their rounds and can plan the hit. To make the project colorful, to maybe see it on the tracks. This is not much, but for some, its a whole life.
On the run! Forever!
Official Website : http://www.unlike-u.com/