There is an inspiring short documentary that premiered at Tribeca this week and it included a communal street art mural event at 41 Ave. A. “BOURN KIND, The Tiny Kindness Project,” created by director Rachel Myers, features the work of Black- Jewish artist Bourn Rich. The project came together during the early days of the pandemic.
In the film, which follows an initial mural campaign; Bourn Rich the artist, decides to confront the fear and isolation experienced during the early pandemic by connecting the community through art. Rich realizes that people are no longer seeing one another, so he creates an interactive street art mural project to celebrate kindness within his neighborhood in Los Angeles.
The team partnered with communities on both coasts, to create multiple murals, and used the bodies of local people from the neighborhood to create the images in the murals.
Myers told The Lo-Down:
“I decided to tell the story early in the pandemic. I had the idea that people were disassociating from each other and that there seemed to be an added layer of fear and tension in how we were interacting. I also think that the moment of the Black Lives Matter [movement] came out of a feeling that so many people experienced… not feeling like they were seen or that they mattered.
I did a little illustration of people with messages on peoples masks and I shared it with friends and got a very positive response, people said that was exactly how they felt in this moment – from that I decided to write a script for the film about an Artist who [creates] a project of kindness in his community. Initially I was going to cast an actor and make it a traditional narrative film but I met Bourn Rich the artist …and he was such a lovely person and a talented artist I asked him if he would be interested in participating in collaborating.”
“I was so excited that he did and then the film had a layer of documentary to it because Rich is a real person and painted the Kindness mural for the communities, both in Los Angeles and here in New York. It took the film from being just a narrative story idea to being a real social activism project that engaged people.
It’s been really special seeing how the community has come out to share their time, and their experience, in making the work.”
There will be rush tickets available for “BOURN KIND: The Tiny Kindness Project” this evening at Cineopolis, here and you can watch it online (as well as all of this year’s short films at Tribeca) with an “At Home Shorts Pass” here.
