The Poop Painter of New York City

Genre: documentary

Audience: New Yorkers; city dwellers; dog owners; people who walk on sidewalks; NYC code enforcement officers; people freaked out by the smell of dog poop.

Purpose: This guerilla-style video intends to draw attention to the bad-neighbor behaviors of a dog owner in the neighborhood and to question the proportionality of the response by the "poop painter." It is a comment on the delicate social ecosystem of large cities, where callousness can undermine the implicit behavioral contact between neighbors. At the end of the short video, the commentator turns the camera on himself to personalize the criticism and his unease about the behavior of the dog owner and the poop painter.

Stance: It is less an argument than a question about personal responsibility. Is the poop painter undermining (in a very small way) the beauty of the neighborhood when he/she spraypaints the sidewalk? Or is the foul of sidewalk poop so eggregious that graffiti is warranted? - Jonathan Martin