"Style Wars" & "Electric Boogie" Classic Hip Hop Docs April 25, 2009

Event: “Style Wars & Electric Boogie” Guest curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present the cult Hip Hop documentaries “Style Wars” (Color and b&w, 1982) and “Electric Boogie” (Color, 1983). Focused on the emerging subculture of Hip Hop with an emphasis on graffiti, “Style Wars” was one of the earliest and best (winner of the Grand Prize for best documentary at the 1984 Sundance film festival). The rarely screened and virtually unavailable “Electric Boogie” (Color, 1983) follows four friends around the South Bronx as they break dance their butts off, culminating in a competition at a local disco. Plus, Carson Davidson's short film “3rd Ave El” (Color, 1954).
Date: Saturday, April 25, 2009 at 8:00PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco 94110
Admission: $10.00 RSVP Only to: 415-558-8117 or [email protected]
Web: http://oddballfilm.com/resources/events_parent.html

“Style Wars” and “Electric Boogie”
Screen at Oddball Films

On Saturday, April 25, Guest Curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present two cult documentaries focused on the emerging Hip Hop culture in New York. “Style Wars” (1982) has reached near legendary status for its documentation of the exploding sub culture of Hip Hop, and it’s a great film to boot- winning the Grand Prize for best documentary at the 1984 Sundance Film Festival. “Electric Boogie” (1983) is the rarely screened and virtually unavailable film about four young friends who break dance their way through the South Bronx. Plus, the short film “3rd Ave El” (1954), documenting a lost, pre-graffiti cityscape.

Showtime is 8:00PM and admission is $10.00. Seating is limited so RSVP is preferred to: [email protected] or 415-558-8117.

Films Include:

“Style Wars” (Color & b&w, 1982, 60 mins.)

Known as the original Hip Hop documentary, this modern classic directed by Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant focuses on the emerging/exploding Hip Hop subculture in New York in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The main focus is on graffiti, but rapping and break dancing are also featured. This is the original 60 minute version which first aired on television in 1984 (it has since seen a DVD “restoration” adding 9 minutes of footage).

“Some call it tagging, some call it writing, still others call it bombing--it's all graffiti. Whether it's art or not is another matter, but it's undeniably illegal. Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant's historic PBS documentary Style Wars tracks the rise and fall of subway graffiti in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s. At the peak of its popularity, graffiti was as much a part of B-boy culture as rapping, scratching, and breaking. The filmmakers present a sympathetic, but well-rounded portrait of their subject through extensive interviews with taggers--notably Seen, Kase, and Dondi--art collectors, transit authorities, and even Mayor Ed Koch, who would eventually put the hammer down. Along the way, they documented the burgeoning break-dance scene, with a focus on the world-famous Rock Steady Crew. The soundtrack features selections from Grandmaster Flash, the Treacherous Three, and other tagger-approved icons of old-school hip-hop.” --Kathleen C. Fennessy

“Electric Boogie” (Color, 1983, 30 mins.)
This 1983 documentary by Tana Ross and Freke Vuijst follows four teenagers, two Black and two Puerto Rican, as they break-dance their way through the South Bronx. These teenagers perform anytime, anywhere transcending the harsh realities of their environment, and dissipating the race barriers in this impromptu troupe. A portrait of break dancing as a vital expression of life in a dehumanizing urban landscape.

“3rd Ave El” (Color, 1954, 11 mins.)
By the great Carson Davidson (director of the Oddball Films favorite “Help, My Snowman’s Burning Down”), this impressionistic picture of a ride on the elevated 3rd Ave. train (long since torn down) shows a lost cityscape that is free of graffiti- a tagger’s blank slate.

Curator Biography:
Pete Gowdy (aka DJ Chas Gaudi) is host of San Francisco’s Shellac Shack, a weekly 78 rpm listening party and a DJ specializing in vintage sounds: soul, jazz, country, punk and new wave. A graduate of the Vassar College Film Program, he is an associate producer of Marc Huestis Presents, the long-running movie legend tributes at the Castro and Victoria Theatre.

Official Website: http://www.flarerecord.com