There is a building with painted advertisements that I walk towards everyday when I leave work and a smaller one by my gym in Williamsburg — I always watch these painted ads go up and down and wonder if it is hard to put so much time into creating something that you will have to paint over in a few weeks to make something new again.

This short documentary “Up There” chronicles the dying craft of hand-painted advertising, a trade that is equal parts artistic precision and grueling labor. Shot over two months, “Up There” tells the stories of the New York painters who are struggling to keep this advertising method alive. The documentary was a collaborative project, based on an original concept from Mother New York.