Pixo

Joao Wainer and Roberto T. Oliveira's 2009 Brazilian documentary is about the practice of pichacao in Sao Paulo. This form of writing, using a distinctive vertical and hard-to-read lettering, is applied to the highest and most dangerous points in the city. The subject is not aesthetics but access. For the writers what matters is where they can reach; climbing the outsides of buildings and leaving a signature where nobody else can go. That also shapes their relationship with art institutions, and the film shows the tension through an incident at an art biennial. The directors stay beside the writers and record the climbs. The narrative classifies it as neither crime nor art; it shows it as an act that makes the city's class division visible. Who it's for: those interested in street art and urban culture. Who it's not for: viewers who approach the subject legally; the film does not enter the property argument and stands with the writers.