Photo credit: © jr-art.net

Parisian Street Artist JR takes photos of people, creates giant billboard sized posters of them, and plasters them across roofs, trains, steps, river canals, barns, entire neighborhoods, you name it. All over the world.

“So what?,” Herschel at the corner grocery would say, “Coca Cola has been doing that for years and you don’t make a film about it.”

Trailer – Women Are Heroes – English Version
Uploaded by JR

In this case the man behind the camera is engaged with the stories of his subject, people he discovered as he traveled to places like Kenya, Phnonm Penh, and Rio de Janiero. As he talked with locals he was drawn to the simple and profound pain of women who have suffered the indignities of war, poverty, and loss.  By engaging with the grandmothers, mothers, daughters, and children who comprise more than one half the worlds population but suffer wars’ cost at a much higher rate, JR conveys their humanity, their warmth, and sometimes their hope.

Phnom Penh. Photo credit: © jr-art.net

The TED Prize Winner for 2011, JR showed his movie “Women Are Heroes”  at the Cannes Film Festival last year.  In about 10 days, beginning in France, it will have wide release for the rest of us to see.

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