Director Mark Street
Rated M
Score 6/6

Can Art Stop a Bullet, at its simplest, is a documentary about artist William Kelly, but it’s so much more than that. Centred around the creation of an artwork for Kelly’s State Library of Victoria Fellowship the film explores the relationship between art and activism, and the power of images to change how we think and to effect real change.

Okay, for the record I have been procrastinating on writing the review for Can Art Stop a Bullet? I will admit that this probably the only documentary for MDFF2020 that I have watched before watching the actual documentary. I went into this never having seen any of William Kelly’s work, I found that he had a great presence on screen it was an interesting move by the filmmakers to use Kelly’s creation of an art-work for the Library of Victory to frame the structure of the documentary.

Now, after watching this documentary do, I believe that art can stop a bullet? I am not sure, though going by what was said about Colin Powell and the tapestry reproduction of Pablo Picasso’s anti-war mural “Guernica” at the United Nations it certainly can influence things. We have all heard that good artwork challenges peoples preconceived notions and I thought it was interesting what Raymond Watson had to say about his Hands of History sculpture and the woman looking for David Trimble’s hands. I also found it interesting hearing the story behind Nick Ut’s work The Terror of War.
I suppose what has stuck with me from Can Art Stop a Bullet is a moment when Doctor Rama Mani quoted Vann Nath talking about his work ‘we must never forget, we must never do this again. Not here, not anywhere’.