#Bars4Justice a.k.a. Bars4Justice Queen Muhammad Ali & Hakeem Khaaliq Producer: Nation19 Magazine (a Mobile Regime brand) 2015, 9 min., Color, US On the one year anniversary of Mike Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri, a benefit concert in commemoration of his life was organized by Hip-Hop and civil rights activists Common, Talib Kweli, Immorta...
Afro-punk James Spooner 2003, 66 min., Color, US AFRO-PUNK explores race identity within the punk scene. This film tackles hard questions, such as issues of loneliness, exile, inter-racial dating and black power. We follow the lives of four people w...
All the Ladies Say Ana Garcia Producer: Ana "Rokafella" Garcia 2010, 45 min., Color, US Veteran b-girl Ana "Rokafella" Garcia's first documentary film ALL THE LADIES SAY features the work of female breakdancers in the United States, including Aiko, Baby Love, Beta, Lady Champ, Severe and...
Arctic Hip Hop Randy Kelly Producer: Jacques Ménard & Micheline Shoebridge 2007, 44 min., Color, Canada In Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, an isolated community of 1500 mainly Inuit residents, Hip-Hop has been popular for many years. But it’s the glamourized gangsta lifestyle on display in music videos that man...
The Art of Love and Struggle Jessica Habie 2006, 78 min., Color, US In this film, artists, singers, emcees, activists, poets and writers come together in an explosive exploration of feminine creation. Each lady brings to the screen her innermost struggles in an attemp...
Birth of a Nation: 4*29*1992 Matthew McDaniel 1993, 60 min., Color, US After criminal charges were dropped against four Los Angeles police officers accused in the brutal beating of Rodney King, Los Angeles erupted. This video offers a rare view of the rebellion that bega...
Blaze: The Truth Through Hip Hop Maurice Lynch 2006, 90 min., Color, US The Hip-Hop Christian movement has been uplifting youth by delivering positive religious messages that are not about drugs, sex, or hate but of hope and peace.
In a society where artists are glorif...
Blood Judy Singh 2005, 40 min., Color, Cuba BLOOD features popular Canadian-Jamaican dub poet d’bi.young, with performances by the Cuban female Hip-Hop Group Las Krudas. The film is part extraordinary music video (shot on locations around Havan...
Call For Change Series 2005 Various Producer: Third World Newsreel 2005, 133 min., Color, US A series of 16 shorts on how NYC communities of color view their "State of America" and what they're doing to make changes. These shorts aim to provoke discussion and more. Topics range from the cont...
Color Schemes Shu Lea Cheang 1989, 29 min., Color COLOR SCHEMES uses the cycles of a generic laundromat washing machine as a metaphor to tackle misconceptions about racial assimilation. Twelve writers and performance artists from various cultural bac...
Deft Changes: An Improvised Experience Alonzo Speight 1991, 10 min., Color, US Through short improvised sketches, this video explores the generational conflicts between a father and son who are each musicians. It features performances by guitarist Mark Whittfield, and the late m...
Democracy in Dakar Ben Herson, Magee McIlvaine & Chris Moore Producer: Nomadic Wax and Sol Productions 2007, 66 min., Color, US/Senegal "Democracy in Dakar" explores the transformative role of Hip-Hop in politics in Senegal, West Africa during the 2007 presidential election campaign. This documentary mixes interviews, freestyles, and ...
Desi Remix Chicago Style Balvinder Dhenjan 1996, 46 min., Color, US/UK Shot in Chicago and London this energetic documentary follows three very different Punjabi bands and their attempts to use their music as a bridge between the competing cultural influences of India an...
Diamonds in the Rough: A Ugandan Hip Hop Revolution Brett Mazurek 2009, 53 min., US/Uganda From the ashes of four decades of war, AIDS and corruption in Uganda, The Bataka Squad artists, Babaluku and Saba Saba, rise to forge a revolutionary path using music. They are on a mission to empower...
E Minha Cara Thomas Allen Harris 2001, 56 min., Color, US/Brazil A mythopoetic feast of self-discovery that crosses three continents and three generations, E MINHA CARA traces the filmmaker's journey to Salvador Da Bahia, the African heart and soul of Brazil, as he...
Favela Rising Jeff Zimbalist & Matt Mochary Color, Brazil Their music fueled a movement. His message fought a war.
FAVELA RISING documents a man and a movement, a city divided and a favela (Brazilian squatter settlement) united. Haunted by the murders of ...
Follow Your Heart: China's New Youth Movement Duncan Jepson 2007, 89 min., Color, China A revealing documentary on the work and life of successful and independent Chinese Hip-Hop artists and their cultural influence in a society rapidly changing from communism to consumerism. Clashing wi...
Frekuensia Kolombiana Vanessa Gocksch 2006, 58 min., Color, Colombia FREKUENSIA KOLOMBIANA profiles the grassroots Hip-Hop scene in Colombia, exploring the popularity of all the elements--MCing, breakdancing, graffiti, and DJing--and their relation to the political and...
Graffiti Verite' 1: Read the Writing on the Wall Bob Bryan Producer: Bob Bryan 2005, 45 min., Color, US An award-winning documentary that explores the eclectic world of Hip-Hop and the urban graffiti artist. GRAFFITI VERITE’ is the first up-close and personal expose’ into the graffiti art world as exper...
Graffiti Verite' 10: Hip-Hop Dance: Moving in the Moment Bob Bryan Producer: Bob Bryan 2010, 75 min., Color, US Whether you call it breakin’, bboyin’, bgirlin’ or simply Hip-Hop dance, what we witness here is authentically funky and soulful. These dancers strive to be “in the moment.” When it’s good, what’s exp...
Graffiti Verite' 11: Don't Believe Da Noize!: Voices from Da Hip-Hop Undaground Bob Bryan Producer: Bob Bryan 2010, 55 min., Color, US This documentary is an exploration of the creative expressions in contemporary American Hip-Hop. It focuses on the innovation, movement, and the raw and unfiltered personalized “truth” of some of the...
Graffiti Verite' 2: Freedom of Expression? Bob Bryan Producer: Bob Bryan 2005, 57 min., Color, US Flying high above Los Angeles, GV2 looks down on the streets, introducing us to the artists who “tag” the walls of our cities with spraycans while we sleep.
GV2 features 19 graffiti artists and rev...
Graffiti Verite' 3: A Voyage Into the Iconography of Graffiti Art Bob Bryan Producer: Bob Bryan 2005, 54 min., Color, US This experimental documentary probes the socio-political context that distracts the average person from appreciating the significance of graffiti’s historical and artistic impact.
In GV3, Bryan for...
Graffiti Verite' 4: Basic Techniques for Creating Graffiti Art on Walls & Canvas Bob Bryan Producer: Bob Bryan 2005, 68 min., Color, US This documentary is the ultimate step-by-step program on spray can art. Outsiders get a rare glimpse into the outstanding art and eclectic personalities behind the controversial graffiti art movement...
Graffiti Verite' 5: The Sacred Elements of Hip-Hop Bob Bryan Producer: Bob Bryan 2005, 42 min., Color, US GV5 is a portrait of the educational value and therapeutic aspect of the four elements of contemporary Hip-Hop: DJing, break-dancing, rappin’ and graffiti art.
“Hip-Hop, if used creatively, can giv...
Graffiti Verite' 6: The Odyssey: Poets, Passion & Poetry Bob Bryan Producer: Bob Bryan 2006, 78 min., Color, US GV6 features 31 multi-ethnic, award-winning, published and highly respected poets. Their creations are a seamlessly woven, uniquely honest, visual tapestry that synthesizes one-on-one poetry readings,...
Graffiti Verite' 7: Random Urban Static: … Spoken Word Bob Bryan Producer: Bob Bryan 2008, 120 min., Color, US GV7 probes the reality of spoken word poets, or, poets that write for the stage. Spoke Word poetry, often flavored with Hip-Hop, connects with today’s youth because the poetics of this art form speak ...
Graffiti Verite' 8: The Fifth Element: The Art of the Beat-Boxer Bob Bryan Producer: Bob Bryan 2010, 45 min., Color, US Combining throat-based effects that create a “wall of sound,” the job of the human beat-boxer is to compose a flawless soundscape.
GV8 explores the history of beat-boxing and its claim as its own ...
Graffiti Verite' 9: Soulful Ways: The DJ Bob Bryan Producer: Bob Bryan 2010, 45 min., Color, US Watching a great DJ spin is analogous to watching a professional musician perform. As composer and producer Glenn Towery says, “DJs have to understand the dynamics of music to understand the beat”.
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Hip Hop Sp Francisco Cesar 1990, 11 min., Color Young Black members of Sao Paulo's hip hop movement depict their experience and views of Black Brazilian history through their music, dance and graffiti....
Hiphopistan: Representing Locality in a Global City Çiğdem Akbay 2007, 25 min., Color, Turkey HIPHOPISTAN is a documentary film that examines the impact of Hip-Hop culture on Istanbul youth and reveals how young Turkish rappers, DJs, break-dancers, and graffiti artists creatively blend popular...
I Love Hip Hop in Morocco Joshua Asen & Jennifer Needleman Producer: Rizz Productions, Inc. 2007, 80 min., Color, US/Morocco This feature-length documentary follows the creation of Morocco's first-ever Hip-Hop festival, from inception all the way to the stage. Along the way we meet DJ Key, a self-taught turntable prodigy wh...
I'm British But… Gurinder Chadha 1989, 30 min., Color, UK This unique look at Asians in Britain offers first-hand views of second generation Asians, adding archival footage and invigorating Bhangra and Bangla music--traditional Punjabi songs updated with hip...
Inventos: Hip Hop Cubano Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi 2005, 50 min., Color, US/Cuba INVENTOS explores the burgeoning Hip-Hop scene in Cuba. In spite of the US trade embargo against Cuba, the Hip-Hop movement is flourishing with popular innovative groups such as EPG&B, Grandes Ligas, ...
Is It Sweet? Tales of an African Superstar in New York Jesse W Shipley Color, US Reggie Rockstone is a celebrity rap musician in Accra, Ghana, where he inspired a young generation of musicians and continues to draw huge crowds. But when he comes to New York to play for the Ghanaia...
Jails, Hospitals, and Hip Hop Mark Benjamin & Danny Hoch 2000, 90 min., US From the mind of Brooklyn actor, performance artist and Hip-Hop activist Danny Hoch, this film spins out the stories of ten lives shocked by global Hip-Hop, the prison system and life in general. Movi...
Know Your Enemy Art Jones 1990, 27 min., Color, US Using the controversy surrounding the rap group Public Enemy, KNOW YOUR ENEMY critiques the mass media's bias against rap music and culture. Interviews combined with performance footage, and archival ...
Knowledge Reigns Supreme Art Jones 1991, 8 min., Color, US Using the words and music of rapper KRS-1, this video short questions the current wave of multiculturalism in the educational system. It interrogates the myths of societal homogeneity, and assumed cul...
La Bruja: A Witch from the Bronx Felix Rodriguez 2005, 50 min., Color, US Art, labor and family blend in this intimate documentary about performance artist Caridad De La Luz, better known as 'La Bruja'. Born and raised in the Bronx, this daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants ...
Living the Hiplife Jesse W Shipley 2007, 61 min., Color, US/Ghana This film is a musical portrait of street life in urban West Africa. It follows the birth of Hiplife music in Accra, Ghana, a mix of various African musical forms and American hip hop. Archival footag...
Lockdown, USA Michael Skolnik & Rebecca Chaiklin 2006, 84 min., Color, US In 1973, New York State enacted the Rockefeller Drug Laws, which are the harshest drug control measures ever passed in any democratic nation. President Reagan declared the National “War on Drugs” in 1...
Masizakhe: Building Each Other Angelica Macklin and Scott Macklin Producer: Open Hand Reel 2008, 80 min., Color, South Africa/US "Masizakhe, Building Each Other" explores the role of art, social activism and Hip-Hop in education and presents students, teachers, artists and principals working to support each other while re-estab...
Media Assassin Art Jones 1989, 17 min., Color, US A politically charged analysis of hip-hop culture that challenges the media portrayal of hip-hop as violent and noisy, rather than as a statement of identity and empowerment....
Mr. Devious John Fredericks 2006, 73 min., South Africa MR. DEVIOUS is an exploration of the life and impact of South African Hip-Hop artist Mr. Devious on the youth and community of Cape Flats in Cape Town, South Africa. The film traces Mr. Devious' intro...
Nas: Time Is Illmatic One9 & Erik Parker Producer: One9 & Erik Parker 2014, 74 min., Color, US Twenty years after the release of Nas’s groundbreaking debut album ‘Illmatic,’ NAS: TIME IS ILLMATIC takes us into the heart of his creative process. Returning to his childhood home in Queensbridge, N...
Respect is Due Cyrille Phipps Producer: Third World Newsreel Workshop 1992, 10 min., Color, US In keeping with the doctrines of Wall Street and Madison Avenue, sex sells rap music. In this video, Black youth examine the ways women of African descent are frequently portrayed in rap lyrics and mu...
Rock Me, Goong Hay Shelton Ito Producer: Third World Newsreel Workshop 1992, 5 min., Color, US The Goong Hay Kid is the fictional Chinese rapper created and played by Alvin Eng. ROCK ME, GOONG HAY combines hip-hop styling with a forceful protest against stereotypes....
Scene Not Heard Maori Karmael Holmes 2005, 45 min., Color, US Right from the beginning of the hip hop movement, Philadelphia's artists have made major contributions as emcees, grafitti artists, dancers, and especially as deejays. Native talents such as Will Smit...
She Rhymes Like a Girl J.T. Takagi Producer: Third World Newsreel 2005, 7 min., Color, US Toni Blackman and the FreeStyle Union are challenging the male dominated world of hip hop and empowering women to speak their minds in freestyle workshops. This music video/documentary hopes to promot...
Unity: Hip Hop’s Next Chapter Mark Holmes & Mark Holt 2011, 47 min., Color, Canada For years now various platforms and reports have been developed and issued to discover how our schools and institutions can improve upon such essential developmental components for our youth such as s...
Wave: A True Story in Hip Hop Tony Wesley & Brian Bullock Producer: Tony Wesley & Brian Bullock 2016, 46 min., Color, US See how the legendary Tony "Mr. Wave" Wesley went from a kid in the Bronx to an international B-Boy superstar to entrepreneur and activist. This film includes never before seen archival pictures and i...
Yippie Yippie 1968, 10 min., BW, US Filmed as the official statement of the Youth International Party, this film is as freewheeling and irreverent as the Yippies themselves. It presents an overview of 1968 Chicago, Mayor Daley, and the...
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