SYNOPSIS

A portrait of West Seattle’s notorious and beloved muralist, Desmond Hansen—painter, musician, lowriding enthusiast, husband, father, legend. His name is everywhere. His work divides critiques and unites communities. This is a story about art, ownership, controversy, and leaving your mark.

A documentary short film

UNRELEASED

In March of 2025, longtime film collaborators Graham Schijf and Chris Shields were hired to shoot a short film in Seattle, WA. Each day they were there, they passed a portrait of the late Alice In Chains lead singer Layne Staley spray painted on an electrical box on their way to set. Alice In Chains being one of Shields’s favorite bands, he became obsessed with the mural. The two left their hotel early each morning so they could stop at the mural to admire and take photos of it.

Shields tracked down the artist, Desmond Hansen, and reached out to him on Instagram expressing his admiration for the work. After some chatting, Shields proposed the idea of making a short documentary on the artist to highlight his work, process, and legacy. In July of the same year, Schijf and Shields returned to Seattle to do just that.

They made this film in just three days with just their combined four hands and two brains. They followed Hansen, his family, and his friends around with cameras for all three of those days, shooting from sun-up to sundown for a whole weekend. Though they sacrificed their sleep, their appetite, and a little bit of their sanity, the whirlwind weekend turned out to be an incredible opportunity to capture the fascinating story of a one-of-a-kind artist.

They timelapsed Hansen’s entire mural painting process for hours, they interviewed Hansen, his wife Melissa, and his best friend Jose Rodriguez III, they scaled hills and buildings to get timelapses, and ran all over West Seattle to document the extensive mark Hansen has left on the city.

PRE PRODUCTION

The planning phase where the foundation of the film is built. This includes script development, budgeting, casting, location scouting, scheduling, building the team, etc.

PRODUCTION

Cast and crew assemble on set to bring what has been planned to life.

POST PRODUCTION

The film is assembled, refined and colored. Footage is cut, sound design and mix, music added, color corrected transforming raw footage into the final product.

FESTIVAL CIRCUIT

The film makes is submitted and screened at film festivals across the country and beyond. Festivals bring opportunity for industry recognition, awards and press coverage.