Visual Review 60- Second Documentary

The 60-second documentary I chose to watch was one called “Hate Speech Coverup (ft. Fruit) by Cibo”. The short video describes the way Pier Paolo Spinazzè (also known as Cibo), a full-time street artist in Verona, uses his artistic skills to paint over hate symbols throughout the city. He has a fan base now and they help him spot new places for his fruit murals. He finds many swastikas and other symbols of hate and then paints them into colorful food art.

I really enjoyed this topic because of the way Cibo takes something hateful and disgusting and turns it into something that positively catches your eye walking down the street. It is a really effective way to use graffiti because he is helping eliminate the bad and create something beautiful. It could be triggering for a person to walk by a swastika, and instead, he paints “signature Italian delicacies” and is able to see citizens take pictures and “smile in front of a giant piece of cheese”.

I liked the variety of shots for this documentary because even though it was only one topic, it wasn’t repetitive. This is something I definitely want to make sure I do when I make my own 60- second documentary. I think it could be easy to get the same shot over and over so I want to make sure I have diversification. He had wide-angle shots that someone else had definitely filmed of him where you can see the whole mural and him painting, but he also had some close-up shots, over the shoulder, and some, where it was him taking the video in ‘selfie mode’ and spray painting. I especially really liked the first low angle shot at around 16 seconds where he is mixing the paint and we are looking up at him from the ground. He has some shots of him driving in the car and this also gives context to the video because it shows that he drives to different places to help spray paint them. I also really liked the shots where it felt like there was a go pro on the spray paint bottle and we were moving with his hand spraying.

It is interesting to me that he only paints foods. There was no explanation for it in the video, but I think it’s important to note. Perhaps because he is painting signature Italian delicacies it is comforting for people to see and representative of their culture. But again, interesting he chooses only foods and not more of a variety. I wish this had been touched on more in the video.

I also liked the choice of background music. Having no words in the song lets the viewer not get distracted and so we are able to focus on what Cibo is saying rather than sing along if it was a song we knew. It is upbeat which also helps get a sense of the tone of the documentary and brings the video together.

The narration in the background, although a different language, really creates a sense of him because hearing his voice while seeing his actions gives a look into his character. I think it is essential that he is the one telling the story rather than a random voice-over because it is more personal this way. This is very much a feel-good story and I also think it is important that the tone of the video comes across in just 60 seconds. I think this video was a good example of that. It is hard to fit so much information in a short period of time, and I think Spinazzè did a successful job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz4EKeFQn6g