Banksy Makes a Movie

This year, one of the Oscar nominees for Best Documentary is Exit Through the Gift Shop, and no one knows who directed it. Sure, the credits list the director as Banksy, but go ahead and Google him. Look for a picture of him.

Find anything?

The London street artist has been , er, displaying his work around the world for years while maintaining anonymity. His website currently shows examples of his mischief around Los Angeles, probably because he's in town for the Academy Awards. He did the same in Park City, Utah when Exit premiered at Sundance last year.

So what does a faceless, first-time director film? The doc started out as Thierry Guetta's sort of attempt to record the street art movement that started over a decade ago, but since the vast majority of what he shot and edited was unwatchable, his friend Banksy offered to take over the re-edit, but ended up turning the camera back on Thierry, who went on to become Mr. Brainwash, aka MBW. Confused enough? Just watch the movie. It's engaging, exciting, surprising...

...and quite possibly, a total and complete lie.

Banksy has been provoking and poking fun at society throughout his career. Why stop with graffiti? Why not make a movie, convince everyone it's true, and reveal later that you orchestrated the whole thing? Or better yet, never reveal anything at all. It wouldn't be the first fake documentary out there, and I'm not the only one questioning the veracity of the film.

But in spite of the probability that one of my favorite films of 2010 was a hoax, I choose to believe it's real. I want to believe that this strange and ironic chain of events actually transpired. I want to believe a guy named Thierry created MBW, and that it wasn't a hugely counterproductive move on the part of creative genius Banksy. I want to believe the Q&A I saw with the producer, editor, and art show producer that I saw last fall. I want to continue watching Exit Through the Gift Shop and feel that unique mix of inspired and outraged, not simply duped.