Wild In The Streets: DEGA Films Captures Hustle of NYC Street Art Scene

DEGA Films is a collection of Brooklyn filmmakers and street art enthusiasts who have been filming short documentary films featuring some of the most prominent names in the NYC street art scene. So far, DEGA Films has created two film series. Art Pollution features NYC street artists like NDA, LNY, Jilly Ballistic, along with street art duos, The Yok & Sheryo and Iranian duo Icy & Sot. Their second series Wild in the Streets is wrapping up this Friday, with a screening of the last two episodes this weekend. While Art Pollution was a nice introduction, featuring POV episodes and Hyperlapse shots of murals created inside bars and walls in NYC, Wild in the Streets is a more complete vision, one that truly captures the hustle in which NYC street artists put their work on display.

Each video begins with a beautiful tracking shot through either the subway system or the streets of NYC. The tracking shot seems to be headed nowhere until we see the artist highlighted using their medium of choice–markers, wheat-paste, stickers–to put their work up somewhere in the city. The camera does not stop on the artist but continues onward, like an onlooker would do. We get a glimpse of the artist and for the next few minutes we see them commit illegal act after illegal act, at all times of the day and night. In Wild in the Streets, the identities of the artists are hidden, unlike those of in Art Pollution.

In the digital age we find ourselves in, it is practically impossible to remain fully anonymous. Everyone has a smart phone with a camera on it. Artists have to be more careful on where their likeness will end up, particularly those in the illicit art scene. We understand the need to remain hidden, and it really makes this film series all the more compelling. It puts a body to these artists, who take their time making sure we see art each time we’re outside.

This Friday, DEGA Films will premiere the last two videos in their Wild in The Streets series featuring Royce and Elle. To celebrate, there will be screenings shown throughout NYC. They will be having a mobile video unit out in the streets, with the location being revealed through their Instagram account. The last screening will be on 118 Mulberry Street Sunday from, in collaboration with The L.I.S.A Project. Those who make the screenings will have a chance to pick up stickers from all of the artists involved via the DEGA sticker machine.

If anyone wants to film his web series, Wild in The Tweets, which just involves him tweeting while watching The Good Wife, contact the author @ChrisLInoa