MTO Documentary Relives Sarasota Mural Controversies

Is this what those murals by French artist MTO were all about in Florida? A documentary? No, but it appears to have worked out just fine.

MTO released a documentary of his work in Sarasota called FL: Unpremeditated Movie on Viveo. So maybe the movie itself wasn't totally premeditated, but after everything that has happened with his work in this art-crazy city, a movie was in order without a budget, funded through his trips paid for by the Sarasota Chalk Festival.

If you don't recall, MTO is the artist whose murals composed with spray paint cans once adorned the Tube Dude plant, which was described as art and graffiti, depending who you asked. It was ultimately removed. He has several other works around Sarasota that also provoked debate.

This movie relives the process, the controversy and the aftermath of the one artist who flew from Berlin to install his work. The editing and presentation is a genius way to guide the intrigued through how art can cause so much conversation in the community. The title is both a play on FL standing for Florida, and standing for the centerpiece work, "Fast Life," or "Fat Lie."

It was made with the help of the Kowal family, Brian McInnis, Kafi Benz, Guillaume Dupont, Alexis Leroux-Dupont, Kenneth Blake, Jeremy Cattanach and was recorded at the HuB, according to the film credits.

You can watch the hour-long movie in its entirety on Patch above.

What do we learn from this film? If you closely followed the journey, not a whole lot, but it does give a nice packaging and glimpse of how the story of these murals unfolded before MTO's eyes.

The movie opens up with him composing an email explaining why he can't come to Miami and says, "What I'm working on is much more interesting."

In Spring 2011, MTO is in Berlin, and reads through an email from Sarasota Chalk Festival Founder Denise Kowal to participate in the festival as part of the "Going Vertical" portion of the festival.

Every clip of media footage found is on here, from SNN, WWSB, WSRQ, Sarasota's HuB and Patch, too, and it's how the story is narrated along with YouTube clips of commercials and later, a reading by Benz of MTO's statement on his work.

Unknowingly to most of us, MTO or his friends had gathered original footage and interviews of their own throughout the crazy mural journey, adding a different dimension to this already familiar story.

MTO captures the emotions of Sarasota from start to finish, at first running through montages of how Sarasota is paradise and everyone is so happy.

"This is heaven," one commercial says about Sarasota.

And then the mood quickly changes with Sergei Prokofiev's ominous "Dance of the Knights," which seems fitting for what we're about to encounter with the Tube Dude situation, and even has a clip of a man looking horrified straight out of an old-time monster movie.

Chapter 1: Fast Life: The Painting

So it comes—Nov. 21, 2011—the start of Chapter 1.

We see the entire ABC 7 report with Max Winitz talking about the art with Tube Dude's Scott Gerber and Gillespie Park activist Linda Holland to set things up for those of us not familiar with the drama. That week of Dec. 1, 2011, was supposed to be the final week of viewing of the mural.

Come Dec. 5, 2011, Gerber changed his mind, the news footage shows, and we even see The Art Whisperer Joey Panek's interview with Gerber. Then Jan. 19, 2012, the City Commission wrote Gerber a letter to requesting removal of the mural.

One month passed, two, three, the documentary reminds us. April 7, 2012—it finally came down.

On the Michael Paragon show on RISE Radio, Gerber explained that "the mural did not come down until Denise told me to take it down." Kowal came on air and said "to say anything otherwise is not being truthful as to what took place."

"It recently was removed at my insistence," Kowal said on the interview.

Next came the Sarasota Architectural Salvage mural in May 2012 with Dr. Robin. It was perhaps more known for the expletive that appeared on the mural, and that word was later removed.

Chapter 2: Fat Lie: The Piece

The second chapter, "Fat Lie: The Piece" is built on the reading of MTO's press release on the meaning and story behind the piece. Kafi Benz of the Sarasota Chalk Festival reads the story for the film, as clips and graphics are intertwined. He released the statement on July 5, 2012.

Fat Life falls under the graffiti attitude category, and how the mural a graffiti crew showing up to do art, but MTO's message was supposed to point to downtown to say "Fast Life is a Fat Lie," but instead, the focus by the community was instead on the physical location of the piece, Benz reads from the release.

Overall, MTO kept quiet in the process until his statement released in July 2012, and took shots at Gerber, critics and others. Now he calls it "The Fat Lie" piece.

He proceeded to tell the stories behind of Dr. Robin and the companion Mr. Hood, which was painted on the Herald Square building in Burns Court, and how Mr. Hood would shoot arrows of love downtown to free the haters, while Dr. Robin would listen to the problems.

Chapter 3: FL: The Final

The third chapter is set up with business owners in Burns Square complaining about the mess of the 2012 Chalk Festival.

Some murals left behind came into question, and the documentary glosses over how quickly the debated murals were painted over. Some of the murals in question were temporary anyway, so the media storm and the controversy quickly went away and didn't linger as long as the Tube Dude and Architectural Salvage murals.  If you didn't notice, that once debated mural at the former gas station in Burns Square has long been painted over.

Those murals in question at Burns Square were not made by MTO, so we move on. 

Instead, we go for a ride to Twitch's Transitional Recovery Homes for recovering drug addicts at 6926 15th Street East in Whitfield for one of his final pieces. The footage with the old motel sign and lighting makes it feel like Whitfield is a part of the old Wild West, especially with Neil Young's "Dead Man Theme" playing over it.

With the guitars and distortion, dark becomes light to reveal a man in a hoodie with "FL" on it. In one hand, the man holds a spray can, and in another, a camera. The letters F and L are formed by circus clowns.

Next, we see footage of what we're believing to be MTO, with his face blurred, placing boxing gloves on Kowal, and taking pictures of her for his new piece. MTO has been noted to take pictures of his subjects in the formation he wants and builds his spray paint art off of those photos. 

We see Benz in a car, in one footage as the crew comes to paint a mural at the Sarasota Fight and Fitness Club on School Avenue, and then the SNN stories telling viewers about these new works.

"If it wasn't for the buildings, we may never see work like this," a man tells a reporter in a clip. 

And so the movie ends. 

But will this be the end of MTO in Sarasota?

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• Fast Life Mural's Final Days Are Numbered
• Fast Life Mural on Tube Dude Plant Removed
• Artist MTO Installs New Mural At Architectural Salvage