''Post No Bills'' is a documentary film on satirical political poster artist

Robbie Conal Robert "Robbie" Conal (born 1944) is an American guerrilla poster artist noted for his gnarled, grotesque depictions of U.S. political figures of note. A former hippie, he is noted for distributing his poster art throughout a city overnight usi ...

directed by Clay Walker. The movie's title comes from lettering found on many construction walls and other city surfaces, indicating that advertisements or handbills are not to be placed on the surface.

Plot

Cast

Production

This documentary was shot on 16mm black and white filmstock in Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco from 1990 to 1992. At the center of the film is a poster that featured LAPD Chief Daryl Gates superimposed on a

NRA The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent gun rights lobbying organization while conti ...

shooting target with the text "Casual Drug Users Ought To Be Taken Out and Beaten." The controversial posters were glued around the city of Los Angeles in March 1991 shortly after the beating of Rodney King by LAPD officers. ''Post No Bills'' documents a two-year period of Conal's painting and postering exploits capturing his rapid rise from anonymous satirist to media celebrity and contains interviews with some of the subjects of Conal's artwork including Daryl Gates and Oliver North.

Exhibition and Awards

''Post No Bills'' was first publicly exhibited in October 1992 at the

Cork Film Festival The Cork International Film Festival, also known as the Cork Film Festival (), is a film festival held annually in Cork City Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the i ...

where it received a certificate of Merit. Several days later the

Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...

awarded ''Post No Bills'' the Silver Hugo for feature-length documentary. ''Post No Bills'' was the first completed broadcast hour

ITVS ITVS (Independent Television Service) is a service in the United States which funds and presents documentaries on public television through distribution by PBS and American Public Television, new media projects on the Internet, and the weekly seri ...

project and was first broadcast on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

in September 1993. "Post No Bills" was added to the Library of Congress Catalog in 1992.

References

External links

The film's official website
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Robbie Conal's Art Attack!
1992 films Documentary films about visual artists 1990s English-language films {{arts-documentary-film-stub