Ink & Linda is a feature-length documentary chronicling the unexpected friendship and collaboration between Inksap, a Vietnamese-American urban artist in his 20s, and Linda, an elder stateswoman of the modern dance scene in her 70s–as they team up to form LA’s most unlikely street art duo. Crossing the boundaries between generations and cultures, their story defies the conventions of art and society, exploring what it means to be an artist in today’s world. It is the story of a young man finding his identity; a woman in the last chapter of her life starting a new one; and of finding family where you least expect it.
ABOUT THE FILM
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
What is it about those two?
That is the question I get asked most often. Linda and Inksap’s relationship is mystifying to outsiders. People find it difficult to understand what a 20-something Vietnamese-American street artist and a septuagenarian body movement guru could possibly have in common.
If the documentary attempts to answer that question, it only does so by stepping back and letting Linda and Inksap tell their story–for the tale of how they came together and where their friendship and collaboration has taken them speaks for itself. There is a certain magic at work–a strange synchronicity that if you allow it, can convince you that there is more to this world than random chance.
Linda and Inksap’s story is a romance, but their relationship is not romantic. It is a tale of two outsiders from different worlds who found meaning within one another.
As much as Linda is a mentor, guiding her young protege to discover the courage to embrace his authentic self, Inksap is also her teacher, ushering her into the world of street art and awakening her youthful spirit of rebellion. Their connection goes beyond the streets of Los Angeles, reaching back decades to its beginnings when Inksap’s family fled the Vietnam War as refugees.
In a time when the world is only getting more divisive, this is a film that breaks down barriers and reminds us that there is more that unites us than divides us. It crosses the boundaries of generations, artistic disciplines, cultures, social norms and even legality.
Street art is an act of rebellion. What they do is illegal, cloaked under cover of night. The streets, rooftop and walls of the city comprise their canvas; their audience is every passerby. My hope with this film is to in some way, capture a piece of the intimacy, trust, excitement and spontaneous combustion that I witnessed between Linda and Inksap. For Ink and Linda, art and love are one in the same. And if art is an act of revolution, then love is the most revolutionary of acts.