'QUALITY OF LIFE'

Ben Morgan - Director of 'Quality of Life' ().

LA GRANDE - "Quality of Life," the explosive film that spins a gripping narrative tale around the controversy regarding the legitimacy of street art and laws that criminalize it, makes its La Grande bow Nov. 2 with an exclusive engagement at the Granada Theater.

The Relentless Co. release runs 85 minutes and is rated R. Granada showtimes are 7:15 and 9:15 p.m.

An after party will take place at Gadfly, 117 Elm St, with director Benjamin Morgan of La Grande present for questions and answers after the screenings.

Morgan has spent more than a decade as a government social worker, working within the local juvenile system.

Morgan is a former at-risk kid himself. His connection to the underground youth of today accentuates the film's cinema verite style.

Says Morgan, "‘Quality of Life' is a story about people trying to do the best they can with what they have. It reveals the story behind the writing on the walls."

Morgan says he set out to make this film to expose the absurdity of so-called "quality of life" laws (which lump graffiti in with drugs, prostitution and general urban blight). The tough-on-crime political climate, he adds, has become endemic in the United States.

Independently made and distributed, "Quality of Life" is a dramatic feature that takes its title from the infamous expression used by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to equate graffiti with murder, as crimes on a "continuum of disorder."

Few in the art world, however, discount a street art scene, Morgan says, that inspired mainstream icons like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat and its own thriving — now global — counterculture.

Praised for its authenticity, the film shines dramatic light on true-to-life underground graffiti culture as it paints a portrait of two torn young artists trying to maintain their friendship and survive, as the cops close in.

"Quality of Life" won the first MySpace Film Users Choice Contest and reigned there as the Top Filmmaker for more than five weeks.

The film, propelled by a cutting-edge hip-hop and alternative rock soundtrack featuring Modest Mouse, Mr. Lif and Built to Spill — and the beat of global buzz — screened at the Berlin International Film Festival (2004) where it received the Special Mention Jury Award, at the Stockholm Junior International Film Festival (2005) where it won the Best Youth Film Prize, sold out screenings at the San Francisco Film Arts Festival of Independent Cinema (2004), the Gijon International Film Festival (2004), the Cinequest Film Festival (2004) and the Seattle International Film Festival (2004).

A DVD release this past June (available at http://www.qualityoflife-themovie.com) preceded the publication, in August, of a book, "The Graffiti Model of Indie Filmmaking."

"It tells how you can make a name without having a ton of resources," says Morgan, who has followed the process through from the initial raising of money and putting together of the project to making and editing the movie and marketing and distribution. "We're hoping to empower other artists."

As the film industry gets away from big budget pictures and moves more toward small independent niche films, Morgan thinks "The Graffiti Model" could pay dividends for other filmmakers.

"It's about the individual having a voice," Morgan says. "Even in the anonymous urban environment, anyone can make a name for themselves."