This documentary is about an unlikely partnership between two mismatched visual artists; a 3 storey mural created in the dead of night using stolen paint and a borrowed cherry-picker; and an illegal artwork that became Newtown’s unofficial symbol, standing at the gateway to Sydney’s Inner West. King Street’s Martin Luther King mural has endured for 20 years and, despite its origin as “Grafitti”, it has won a permanent place in the hearts of the locals who identify with its message of tolerance.
It’s the story of how street artists Andrew Aiken (a foreigner, committed christian and murderer on the run) and Juilee Pryor (alternative artist and single mother, struggling on the poverty line) created a series of remarkable murals that changed the urban landscape in Erskineville and King street in the 1990s, including the iconic Martin Luther King.
Tony Spanos was instrumental in helping the alliance between Andrew and Juilee take place and is featured in the documentary that premiers at Newtown’s Dendy theatre on Thursday 7th June 2012.
Tony helping repaint sections of the mural after a fire in 2011
Newspaper article from August 91