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Pam Hassebroek is founder and editor-in-chief at Movies on Chatham. A passionate researcher in the field of communication, her broad focus is information security, countering cybercrime and terrorism, to which she contributes by studying communication in film. She earned the MS in Petroleum Engineering degree from The University of Texas at Austin, and MS and PhD degrees from Georgia Institute of Technology. Past positions include petroleum reservoir engineering and teaching.
VISUAL COMMUNICATION

Suriya’s Street Art: Who Are Movie-Watchers in La La Land?

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Two hours of one movie can sometimes have a bigger impact on us than two weeks of our day-to-day lives at our jobs and homes.   . . .  that art and life can have a tangible relationship, is a hopeful one for anyone who has felt that their life has been changed by an album, an old movie, a painting, or a TV show.

It’s an optimistic way of viewing the world – one that is as open to the observer as the performer.
—Anna Leszkiewicz, In Defence of La La Land

A Hollywood Landmark You May Recognize

If you’ve been to Hollywood, then you may have seen the mural “You Are The Star,” which is located on the side of a building on Wilcox Ave at Hollywood Boulevard.

Tom Suriya painted the street art in 1983 “during the run-up to the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, when the city was putting on a bit more of a show for visitors” (Reeves, 2019). Suriya’s career in TV and motion picture digital effects began in 1987.

"You are the star" mural, Photo: Carol Highsmith, Library of Congress
A bicyclist passes the “You Are the Star” mural by Tom Suriya, Photo: Carol Highsmith, Library of Congress

Demonstrating its scale, photographer Carol Highsmith captured the mural as a bicyclist passed in front (Highsmith, 2013).

If you saw the award-winning movie, La La Land (Chazelle, 2016), then you may recognize Suriya’s street art as the outside of Lipton’s Restaurant. Continue reading Suriya’s Street Art: Who Are Movie-Watchers in La La Land? →