Jon Reiss' BOMB IT 2 to be Released on VOD, 8/6

Hybrid Cinema is pleased to announce the VOD (Video On Demand) release of global graffiti documentary Bomb It 2, by award-winning Filmmaker-Author Jon Reiss on Tuesday, August 6, 2013 via Cinedigm. Going where no graffiti doc has Gone before, in this follow-up to his explosive street art documentary Bomb It, Reiss travels to Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and beyond, exploring local graffiti scenes and speaking to local artists. Graffiti and street artists featured include Ash Keating, Bon, Great Bates, Husk Mit Navn, Klone, Know Hope, Phibs, Stormie Mills, Vexta, Victor Ash, Xeme, and many others. In keeping with the international approach to the film, Bomb It 2 is having premieres on three continents - North America, Asia, and Africa - with more screenings to come. On August 6th, Bomb It 2 will be available on demand via iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, Xbox, Google/YouTube, and the Bomb It 2website. Hulu, Netflix, and DVD releases will follow in September and October, 2013. For more information, please visit http://www.bombit2movie.com.

"I am continually inspired to explore the world's vibrant graffiti and street art communities, which flourish in some of the most unlikely places - such as Singapore," says Bomb It 2 Director Jon Reiss, "Wherever I go - from Perth to Copenhagen, to the West Bank and Tel Aviv - the need to express oneself in public is a constant, despite the potential risks."

In Bomb It 2, the follow-up to the explosive 2007 global graffiti documentary Bomb It, Reiss takes audiences to previously unexplored areas of the Middle East, Europe, Asia, the United States, and Australia on a hunt for innovative street art and artists. Using an ultra compact camera and sound package, Reiss traveled by himself to artists representing a wide range of cultures, styles, and beliefs, with Reiss functioning as producer, director, cameraman, and sound person all at once on the film. In the process of making the film, he climbed into sewers, visited red ant infested buildings, and fractured his ankle in an Estonian hall of fame.

In the Middle East, Reiss talks with Muhnned Alazzh in the West Bank where Alazzh emphasizes the cultural and political significance of writing on The Wall in Palestinian refugee camps. In Jakarta, Indonesia, Darbotz paints his signature squid monsters in black and white, to distinguish them from the explosion of color on the Jakarta streets. In Singapore, Reiss connects with street artists Zero and Killer Gerbil, who explain the paradox of doing graffiti in one of the most highly policed states in the world. Many countries visited for Bomb It 2 didn't have much of a street art scene at all when the original Bomb It was shot back in 2004-2005.

"I am particularly fascinated in how each culture (and each person) takes this art form and makes it their own - how the local culture affects the development of graffiti in each place that I have visited," says Reiss, "Tel Aviv and the refugee camps of Bethlehem couldn't be more different. The former is on the verge of a street art explosion similar to Barcelona in the early '90s. In the West Bank, graffiti is much more about a political statement and 'art' is often viewed as reconciliation."

"Filmmaker Jon Reiss finds himself drawn to subcultures with guts," the Village Voice wrote during an interview for Bomb It's world premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. Named one of "10 Digital Directors to Watch" by Daily Variety, the critically-acclaimed filmmaker has covered the West Coast punk explosion, documented the notorious San Francisco performance group Survival Research Laboratories, rave culture in his debut feature-length documentary, Better Living Through Circuitry, and, most recently, graffiti culture. He also has a non-doc under his belt: the award-winning dark psychological drama, Cleopatra's Second Husband. Also famous for his music videos, in 1995 the Toronto Film Festival curated a retrospective of Reiss' music videos, which included the notoriously disturbing and award-winning 1992 video, "Happiness in Slavery," by Nine Inch Nails. He is currently producing a global transmedia project about breast cancer, centered around a cinema verite documentary on the same subject, titled Agatha's Choice.

His work has screened at festivals, theaters and cultural centers throughout the world as well as on channels such as IFC, Showtime, and the Sundance Channel. Reiss is also a media strategist who helps filmmakers and companies navigate the new distribution and marketing landscape. His experience releasing Bomb It with a hybrid strategy was the inspiration for writing Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution in the Digital Era, the first step-by-step guide for filmmakers to distribute and market their films. He also co-wrote Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul. He has worked with and consulted for Paramount Pictures, Screen Australia, Film Independent, Creative Scotland, The South Australian Film Corporation, the Venice Biennale, and numerous film schools and festivals to devise ways to educate and help independent filmmakers in the new economic landscape. He has conducted his Think Outside the Box Office (TOTBO) Master Classes over four continents, and is the year-round distribution and marketing lab leader at the IFP Filmmaker Labs. He received his MFA from the UCLA Film School and teaches in the Film Directing Program at the California Institute for the Arts. Reiss also contributes to Filmmaker Magazine, Huffington Post, Indiewire, Screen Daily, Moviemaker Magazine, and other publications. While Reiss has no current plans for a Bomb It 3, he admits to being curious about the sort of graffiti he might find in Antarctica. "Wherever people go, they write on walls," says Reiss. www.jonreiss.com

To post a comment, you must register and login.