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According to a piece at Indiewire, the new Casey Affleck-directed mockumentary I’m Still Here: the Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix has started its ad campaign with some graffiti spotted in the Chelsea area of downtown Manhattan. The “mysterious” graffiti consists of a stencil of Joaquin Phoenix’s head with crazy hair and shades sans mention of the film’s title or what the images are for.
This kind of advertising tactic isn’t that remarkable when you think about it – I mean, even the *Omen *remake used a street-level ad campaign to get attention, marking parts of the Lower East Side with the number “666” sprayed in a circular pattern. It’s actually even a little groanworthy considering that it’s an attempt to give Affleck’s mock-doc a faux-street art feel. We get it, it’s guerilla art. Nyuk nyuk, ha ha. And this is coming from someone that got a kick out of Joaquin’s performance on Letterman.
What I’m more interested in regarding the Indiewire piece is the mention that Affleck is being sued for sexual harassment by cinematogrpaher Magdalena Gorka. Gorka claims that Affleck groped her, was generally unpleasant around the set and didn’t pay her and eventually removed her credit from the film after she quit. Affleck’s lawyer says that Gorka’s claims are “fishy” and wonders why she hasn’t made a stink about these allegations until now. Which itself should be a no-brainer: more attention thanks to Affleck’s movie, obviously. Just because she knows how to get attention doesn’t mean her claim is necessarily false. In any case, read more about the suit here and check out the graffiti here.* I’m Still Here: the Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix* is slated to come out September 10th.