Style Wars [Documentary]

Sam Schacht Director: Tony Silver

Overview

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.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/04/2014
UPC:	0760137649793
Original Release:	1983
Source:	Public Art
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	1:10:00
Sales rank:	22,290

Special Features

Style Wars, finally in HD. A beautiful new 2K transfer from the original 16mm print; Feature commentary by director-producer Tony Silver and producer Henry Chalfant; Digitally remastered 5.1 DTS-HD soundtrack; English subtitles for the hearing impaired; ; The Outtakes: a brand new 40 min. film. With the help of donors and fans from Kickstarter we sorted through almost 30 hours of leftover materials to bring you hidden gems and fascinating moments never before seen. Also transferred to HD from the original 16mm, The Outtakes is part nostalgia and part hindsight, taking fans back in time to tell new stories, show slightly different perspectives and delve deeper into the world of 80s New York City; ; B-Boy showcase: a montage of fast paced phenomenally acrobatic gems. The Rock Steady Crew at their tour launch party, in the studio, on the streets, and battling it out against the Dynamic Rockers at the United Skates of America in Queens; ; Style Wars in the cutting room: in the summer of '83 a camera visited Valkhn Films, an editing house where Style Wars was painstakingly sliced together. This 25 min piece is a rare glimpse at the process of telling a real story as it's happening and the people who keep it real. See editor Sam Pollard, director Tony Silver, supervising editor Victor Kanefsky, and more, make history in this unusual and candid short

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Sam Schacht

Narrator

Technical Credits

Henry Chalfant	Producer
Tony Silver	Director,Producer
Larry Scharf	Sound/Sound Designer
Richard Patterson	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Shot between 1981 and 1983 and aired on PBS, Style Wars is remarkable as a relatively early filmed document of hip-hop culture at its source and an intelligent defense of an oft-maligned and misunderstood art form, graffiti. It is constructed as an investigative news piece with stentorian narrator Sam Schacht, presenting an equally weighed back and forth debate over whether graffiti is art or vandalism. But from an opening scene, when a young writer pouts while his mom harangues him over his hobby, it's clear where directors Henry Chalfant andTony Silver's sympathies lie. Cameraman Burleigh Wartes captures subway train murals at opportune locations, where the car-length paintings majestically unfurl for maximum impact. Editors Sam Pollard, Victor Kanefsky, and Mary Alfieri edit these sequences to the 4/4 beat of early rap music, one of the first attempts to develop a hip-hop-influenced cutting technique. Though not addressed directly, the documentary also helps refute a common myth about graffiti culture -- that it had an integral connection with break dancing and rapping and was mostly carried out by black and Hispanic kids. Some of the most interesting footage tracks writers on tagging runs -- jumping fences into train yards and navigating the city's underground tunnels. Though the passion and thrill of artistic discovery is palpable, one is left with the feeling that graffiti was, for the most part, a movement that flowered during a unique situation in New York's history. Style Wars captures this movement as it is just starting to wane, when mayor Ed Koch's crackdowns started having a serious effect and a general overall increase in New York City's quality of life demanded more effective cleanups. The growing media saturation is typified by the clueless and somewhat exploitative attention given by the Soho galleries crowd. Of further note are appearances by writers Dondi, Daze, and Cap One, and a performance by the Rock Steady Crew.