This passed thurday, Tish Brown, Rodney and I followed talented movie editor Cinque Northern to Clearview Cinema here in NY for the premier of the big project he has been working on for the passed 3 years. Peace to stylist Tisha Brown for the phone call and dragging me out, that movie was more than banging it is absolutely necessary! You could tell how necessary but the ecstatic appreciation of the crowd. The movie is the baby of directors Loira Limbal & Vee Bravo. It took 7 years 400 hours of film ( poor Cinque ) and several continents to create the film. It was finally distilled down to 3 charismatic artists/activists: Cuban rapper Magia, Chilean rapper Guerrillero Okulto, and Brazilian rapper Eli Efi. Eli now lives in NY and spoke after the show.
Each of the artists spoke of their personal journey in the film and their connection to the art form. Each of them uses hip hop to battle against the oppression they feel in their own communities:
Guerrillero Okulto fights against the remnants of a Chilean dictatorship.
Magia battles with the effects of slavery on the minds of her community as well as its effect on the perceptions of Black Women.
Eli Efi is an activist in Brazil and keeps his integrity and personal vision in the face of a community in which 87 ( EIGHTY SEVEN!!) percent of black men don't graduate high school and make 125 times less than their non-black counterparts.
I wish I could tell you where to see the movie tomorrow, unfortunately it doesn't launch until 2009. But mark your calendars. The movie is on PBS March 2009. And if you do anything you must, must, MUST see this film! Click (here) to go to The World Is Ours! and see the movie trailer
The crew and I chilled with the directors, Eli and their friends after the show. It broke my heart to hear Eli describe how disappointed he was, after moving to NY, at how shallow the art form that grounded him in Brazil had become in its own Birth country. But as he says " Hip Hop arrived so we can change the world". We still got time.
Loira and Vee are interested in anyone who could help spread the world and who wants to get involved in the projects. Check out the many, many links I'm posting below to get in touch if your interested.
www.estilohiphop.net, www.myspace.com/djlaylo, www.myspace.com/eliefi
I wish I could tell you where to see the movie tomorrow, unfortunately it doesn't launch until 2009. But mark your calendars. The movie is on PBS March 2009. And if you do anything you must, must, MUST see this film! Click (here) to go to The World Is Ours! and see the movie trailer
The crew and I chilled with the directors, Eli and their friends after the show. It broke my heart to hear Eli describe how disappointed he was, after moving to NY, at how shallow the art form that grounded him in Brazil had become in its own Birth country. But as he says " Hip Hop arrived so we can change the world". We still got time.
Loira and Vee are interested in anyone who could help spread the world and who wants to get involved in the projects. Check out the many, many links I'm posting below to get in touch if your interested.
www.estilohiphop.net, www.myspace.com/djlaylo, www.myspace.com/eliefi
1 comment:
Fire! We have to send out weekly email blast until it broadcast on PBS, lmao.
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