Podcast #19: Straight Outta Buckinghamshire
Manage episode 156092317 series 1176602
On this edition of See It Loud we’re kickin’ it old school with Dick Fontaine, one of the deans of British documentary and the director of the rare hip hop docs Beat This! and Bombin’.
Made for British TV in the 1980s and screening February 19 and 24 at New York’s Anthology Film Archives as part of an eight-day retrospective of Fontaine’s nearly 50-year career, Beat This! and Bombin’ respectively trace the rise of rapping, scratching, breaking, and graffiti out of the gang culture of New York’s South Bronx and explore its explosive effect on urban youth in Thatcher-era Britain.
Springing in large part from the impact and sci fi-influenced ideology of the great DJ/producer/Zulu Nation founder Afrika Bambaataa (he of “Planet Rock” and “Looking for the Perfect Beat,” among other electro-funk classics), these seminal docs also feature indelible footage of hip hop forefather DJ Kool Herc, inventor of the breakbeat, and introduced the larger UK public to a Midlands graffiti artist named Goldie who went on to become a jungle/drum ‘n’ bass star, Bjork squeeze, and classical composer.
Speaking to MFW from his office at the UK’s National Film and Television School in Buckinghamshire, where he heads the documentary program, Fontaine talked about his immersion in the early hip hop scene and his latest film on his true musical love, jazz.
This podcast contains a few expletives and occasional background whoops from the student pub below Fontaine’s office. Opening music by Los Musicos de Jose comes from the fine folks at Mevio’s Music Alley.
Movies in this one:
Beat This!
Bombin’
Who Is Sonny Rollins?
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