The BBC News has the news of the Banksy film debut ahead of today’s announcement:
Exit Through The Gift Shop will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, his agent told the BBC. It will be the first time the elusive artist, who has never revealed his identity, has spoken on camera. Billed as “the world’s first street art disaster movie”, its inclusion in the festival has been shrouded in secrecy. Sundance organisers are due to announce its inclusion at a press conference on Thursday.
Update: The New York Times’s Brooks Barnes adds some info from the Carpetbagger blog:
Set to premiere on Sunday night, “Exit Through the Gift Shop” is about an eccentric French shop keeper and amateur film maker who was so obsessed with Banksy that he wanted to make a documentary about him. But the British-born Banksy turned the tables and made a film about the effort to film him.
In a news release, the festival said that “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” billed as “the world’s first street art disaster movie,” includes footage of artists including Banksy, Shephard Fairey and Invader at work, as well as narration by the actor Rhys Ifans. And it quoted Banksy saying, “It’s the story of how one man set out to film the un-filmable. And failed.”
Banksy Film to Debut at Sundance (BBC News)
Banksy Strikes at Sundance (Carpetbagger/New York Times)
