Summaries

Dirty Hands delivers an intense portrait of David Choe, a young near-schizophrenic street artist that devises numerous criminal schemes that afford him to hitchhike across the globe. David skirts the legal constraints of society to "freely" create his art in the public space. His nonchalant law-breaking style lands him in jail several times leading to his eventual demise in solitary confinement in a Tokyo prison cell. He resurfaces with a radically religious agenda and returns home with hope to overcome his criminal temptations and repair his severed relationships. We see David's unwillingness to grow up, his struggle to make it as an artist and his fight to hold on to his sanity for his life and burgeoning art career. www.dirtyhandsmovie.com—Elizabeth Ai

Los Angeles artist David Choe's kaleidoscopic work can be playful, confrontational and sexually frank. His personal life is no less complicated, as revealed by close friend Harry Kim, who documented Choe's life and crimes from 2000 to 2007. From the manic highs of commercial success and dinosaur hunting in the Congo to the self-destructive lows of Japanese jail sentences and bouts of self-doubt and depression, what begins as a gleeful portrait of a bad-boy artist slowly becomes a poignant celebration of one man's journey, both artistically and spiritually, toward his own uncertain salvation.—Travis Miles

Details

Keywords
  • jail
  • congo
  • artist
  • graffiti
Genres
  • Crime
  • Biography
  • Documentary
Release date Jun 20, 2008
Countries of origin United States
Official sites Official site
Language English
Production companies Dirty Hands Film

Box office

Budget $150000

Tech specs

Runtime 1h 33m
Color Color
Aspect ratio

Synopsis

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