A Love Letter For You
Director: Joey Garfield Run Time: 88 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 2011
Starring: Stephan ESPO Powers, Mike Graham, Anjoli Santiago, Jose Antonio, James Crawford, Joseph Crouse, Steve Crum, Nick Falcon, Ari Forman
A Love Letter For You is a genre defying film that mixes elements of documentary and narrative with love and loss, community and solidarity, art and crime. The narrative piece centers around Fire, a graffiti writer from Philly, who is fresh out of prison. He is determined to reignite the love between he and the mother of his child. The documentary piece of the film follows the true story of Stephen ESPO Powers: a graffiti legend who has returned to his stomping grounds in Philadelphia to paint a series of 50 rooftops along his old train line. When Fire clues in to what ESPO is up to, the film seamlessly ties both storylines and genres into one as each character finds a way to help one another get what they are after.
A Love Letter For You uses an all local cast as well as several non-actors. It coincides with Steve Power’s inaugural 2009 A Love Letter project with the City Of Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Foundation and is loosely based on events in the life of Philly native and artist Timothy Curtis.
Screening with a rare cut of the earlier film Espo Runs the Show:
With only a few weeks to go before his art opening at Dietch Gallery in Soho, Steve ESPO Powers struggles to finish his show. Much of his work is made and informed by the street so how is he supposed to find inspiration indoors? Steve would rather spend his days bombing police vehicles and painting over the Coney Island Cyclone. His street marketing pal Gary isn’t trying to hear that and neither is the notorious henchman of a gallery owner Jeffery Dietch. The two set out to make Espo complete his art show by any means necessary. This hybrid film tells one story using two film styles.