By George & Josh Bate
It’s astonishing how chance encounters can shape (or reshape) the direction of our lives. That’s exactly what happened when filmmaker Christopher Walters met visionary artist and entrepreneur Mike Norice in Los Angeles, a meeting that, over 10 years later, has culminated in the powerful new documentary Artfully United (available February 20 on Apple, Amazon, Google and YouTube).
From producer Walters and director Dave Benner, Artfully United follows the life and works of Mike Norice. Born in the Watts section of Los Angeles to a school teacher and a father who was imprisoned when he was young, Norice overcame a tough upbringing to become an inspiring visual artist, sneaker-art designer ,and painter of jaw-dropping murals in the city’s toughest neighborhoods. In 2012, Norice began the Artfully United project by painting signs with words like ‘hope,’ ‘unity’, and ‘encouragement’ on walls in impoverished areas and even in gang terf, and has siince crafted a career that lifts up lives and spirits.
The HoloFiles recently had the opportunity to speak with producer Christopher Walters about the new documentary, the timeliness of the project, its emotional resonance across the political spectrum, and more.
Walters spoke of his initial encounter with Norice, during which he was drawn in by his incredible artistic abilities. “His objective talent is so spectacular,” Norice said. “So I’d say it was the cumulative greatness of all of his things that he’s doing – his inspiring personal story. Me being a filmmaker, us being friends, him being in Los Angeles, it was a wonderful place to [start making a movie.]”
This encounter quickly flourished into a friendship between Norice and Walters, who brought on his “good buddy” Dave Benner to direct a documentary spotlighting Norice’s incredible talent. Over the course of 10 years, Benner and Walters, alongside a skeleton crew of camera operators, made over 30 trips back and forth to Los Angeles to profile Norice and his activism work.
The profile sees Benner and Walters walk audiences through Norice roots in Watts, during which he was raised by his schoolteacher mother as his father was incarcerated. Norice’s father served in the Vietnam War, despite having an option to defer enlistment due to his status as a college student. While in Vietnam, his father developed a debilitating substance use addiction, for which he saught but was denied treatment for by the VA at the time as there was no room on the floor for substance use treatment. “That’s truly the most heartbreaking thing in the film for me is how our country failed one of our Veterans at that moment,” Walters candidly remarked. “And then it’s just a butterfly effect in a million different directions.”
It’s a testament to Walters and Benner’s filmmaking that Artfully United does not shy away from the more troubling results of this butterfly effect. One of these topics is homelessness, an issue Norice, his family, and others have brushed shoulders with. In our interview, Walters importantly noted that homelessness exists on a spectrum and is not always what it seems. “Some people may associate that with words with being completely unconscious on the street, whether it be from drugs or dehydration or alcohol, but acute distress in the physical observable form,” Walters said. “There are so many people in this country living in cars with their children – children still going to school. The schools may or may not know the extent to which these kids are challenged in that way, but so many people that are still working. Or engaged with family that might be couch-surfing, for lack of a better term. And that’s a different type of homelessness. There’s people who [have] one bad incident of health crisis or car accident or failure to get an inspection sticker, that needs to be considered on the spectrum.”
Artfully United‘s focus on homelessness, poverty, loss, and struggle more generally makes it a timely watch in modern America. “I think it’s an ideal time [to watch the movie],” Walter stated. “And I think it’s a perfect opportunity for something that’s so positive, that has its elements of tragedy, that has its depictions of struggle. It’s a heartbreaking film and there’s elements of loss that can never be recaptured. But there’s triumph. There’s inspiring things to take from it.”
During our interview, Walters revealed that the documentary originally looked and felt quite different from its final product. Initially, the entire film was narrated by Walters, but, after consultation with his collaborators, Molly Connors and Amanda Bowers, opted to remove the narration from the entire film. “We took it completely out in post-production and let the story tell itself,” Walters recounted. “I was aware that we just wanted to get out of the way. This is such an incredibl subject and story. And that it’s going to be absorbed more [without narration]…I’m a writer also. So it would be very tempting for me to try to construct the narrative or tell audience what they’re seeing or tell the audiences how I see things. And we made a good decision.”
The decision certainly paid off as Artfully United allows the audience to take in the simultaneously inspiring and heartbreaking journey of Mike Norice without a specific message imposed onto it. “I’ve gotten really great reactions to the film from people of very, very different political inclinations and value inclinations,” Walters reflected. “I have friends of mine that are complete Atheists. I have friends of mine that are Jewish. I have friends of mine that are Catholics and Protestants and non-practicing and practicing. And they all react so positively to the observance of faith by this family, but also their respect for humankind of people that are different.”
In crafting an extraordinarily raw, yet uplifting piece of art, Walters hopes that Artfully United will inspire viewers to navigate their lives unafraid “to utilize [their] God-given talent.” Norice himself describes this as doing what you would do with your free time. But that is just one of the many takeaways audiences will have when they watch Artfully United, a powerful documentary we recommend unreservedly.
Check out some of Mike Norice’s art over at his Instagram page here.
Read more about the Artfully United project here.
Artfully United streams February 20 on Apple, Google, Amazon, and YouTube.
