Wayne Frost Movies
Calisthenic breakdancing and big, bold graffiti art were in top form and popularity in the U.S. in the early and mid-'80s, and this documentary extols the spirit and the talents of a variety of New York youngsters who were expert in either one or both of these challenging pastimes. Public reactions are wildly varied. On the one hand, the youth brave a police crackdown on graffiti and face barbed-wire fences and guard dogs in the railroad yards where they spray paint subway cars with oversized lettering. On the other hand, their art is shown in a municipal gallery and analyzed with the same seriousness as a Rembrandt or a Renoir. Whether viewers judge the graffiti an "eyesore" or a bit of post-modern expressionism, it is true that both the art and the dancing are incisively presented in this hour-long exploration. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
This docudrama celebrates the colorful lives of teens who live in the South Bronx. There they are seen break dancing, creating graffiti art, and listening to raucous rap. The slim story centers on Zoro, who likes to spray-paint subway cars. He gets a break when he is hired to decorate a platform for an upcoming rap concert. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee George Quinones, Patti Astor, (more)
Jon Chardiet plays a Puerto Rican youth who targets subway walls for his graffiti renderings. For a while, it looks as though Chardiet's problems will carry the plotline, but before long the film's true raison d'etre comes to the surface. Rap-music deejay Guy Davis, in tandem with such like-minded individuals as music student Rae Dawn Chong, endeavor to stage a huge breakdancing presentation, featuring several musical artistes of the period. Harry Belafonte served as coproducer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rae Dawn Chong, Guy Davis, (more)
- 2001
- Add The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boy to QueueAdd The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boy to top of Queue
In the early '70s, the rough-and-tumble South Bronx gave birth to several distinct but related phenomena which would in time be heard around the world. A disc jockey named Kool Herc who spun records at block parties began digging up obscure records with great rhythm breaks, and he began cutting back and forth between two copies of the same record, allowing the breaks to go on as long as he pleased. Other Bronx DJ's, such as Grandmaster Flash, began combining "cross-mixing" with "scratching," in which the sound of the record being manually moved back and forth against the stylus was used for sonic and rhythmic effect. The new sounds prompted new styles of dancing, bringing in wild acrobatic moves including back spins and head balancing. And some DJ's began working with MC's who would add rhyming raps over the newly extended rhythm breaks. Add in the flashy and distinctive style of Bronx graffiti art and you have the birth of the hip-hop revolution, which over the next 30 years would impact practically every aspect of Western popular culture. The Freshest Kids: The History of the B-Boy is a documentary which looks at the pioneers of Bronx hip-hop, featuring interviews with a number of the major players in the original "B-Boy" movement (including Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, KRS-One, and Fab Five Freddy) as well as current rap and hip-hop artists who acknowledge the importance of these musical pioneers (among them Redman, Mos Def, and Jurassic Five). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
This history and culture of hip-hop, as rapping, street dancing, and graffiti art grew from a local phenomenon in the South Bronx to an art form embraced around the world, are examined in this documentary from filmmaker Paul Kell. Focusing on the more intelligent and "conscious" side of hip-hop rather than the more commercial and exploitive direction of many top-selling artists, Five Sides of a Coin traces hip-hop back to its origins in the hard-hitting musical poetry of Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets and the block-party musical innovations of Kool DJ Herc and Afrika Bambaataa, while featuring the thoughts of a number of leading artists and offering a look at the hip-hop in Japan, Europe, and the United Kingdom. Five Sides of a Coin includes interviews with KRS-One, Biz Markie, Q-Bert, Jeru, Michael Franti, DJ Spooky, and more. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- DJ Spooky, Michael Franti, (more)
