A Rose Painted City

A “OUTSIDER FILMS” FILM
WRITTEN BY JANELLE GRAY

Enter Rose. Her eyes pass over a city full to brimming with advertisements. Her vision feels cluttered. Blocked. Stunted. Rose believes people should be able to create their own art on the streets. In her workbook she draws the day street art is legal, the voice of the people.

Fighting the corporation, Rose begins her own campaign to wipe out ads. She creates an epidemic of followers via youtube, with live streaming of her statements promoting a world free, where people paint hope, and beauty. Her living stencils take over the city landscape. Huge wings of butterflies on grey painted over backgrounds, and controversial words, capture the imaginations of a suppressed society. Yet as the viewcount on her videos climb, so does her desire to get noticed through more and more dangerous locations for her art.

It’s night time, Rose flees from a dairy owner, sprinting down the tracks of a well used railway line. A car pulls up alongside, introducing James. An extremist in vision, who wishes to use Rose to breath art into his ideas, and wipe the slate dangerously clean through destruction of the richest most corrupt members of society – Coca cola, politicians, and Inland Revenue. Rose is easily swayed to his notion of a free society, even though the means to the end is the very antithesis of who she is.

An opposite attracts. Having fallen for James charisma, like a fantail heading for a glass window, Rose loses sight of her hope to promote a positive message for a society founded on free speech. Her messages of hope, become uncensored threats of violence, promoting fear in the hearts and minds of its people.

The stars stare down as Rose pauses in front of a grey wall. James sits in a nearby car. She paints.