3 feature films screening as part of the festival at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne. Programmed by James Nolen.
Graffiti Rock USA (1984: 23min) (screening before ‘Breakin’)
Director Clark Santee
Pilot of a music program for television about hip hop music and culture starring Run DMC, the New York City Breakers, Kool Moe Dee, and auteur-in-the-making Vincent Gallo, aka “Prince Vince.”
Breakin’ USA (1984: 87mins)
Director Joel Silberg
Source: Chapel Distribution. Courtesy: Mark Spratt
The first major breakdancing film, Breakin' starring veteran breakdancers Michael ‘Boogaloo Shrimp’ Chambers and Adolfo ‘Shabba-Doo’ Quinones. Lucinda Dickey is a dancing student who dislikes the regimen of her demanding teacher. She breaks free from tradition when she befriends a bunch of street kids devoted to breakdancing. Additional nods go out to Ice-T flexing his early Sugarhill Gang-style rap muscles and Jean-Claude Van Damme in his very first on-screen appearance during the beach dance-off clip in the beginning.
Thank God It’s Friday USA (1978:100 min)
Director Robert Klane
Source: Amalgamated Movies. Courtesy: Steven Snell
The Zoo is the hottest disco in town and on the night of the big dance contest, a wild assortment of disparate characters finds themselves out on the floor together. Nicole (Donna Summer) is a bumbling but beautiful singer who schemes to earn her big break on the disco's stage and Frannie and Jeannie are high school girls who need the contest prize money to buy Kiss concert tickets. There's plenty of thumping disco action and nothing but happy endings in this colourful period comedy.
Yamakasi – Les samouraïs de temps France (2001: 89mins)
Director Ariel Zeitoun and Julien Seri
In French with English subtitles. Source: EuropaCorp. Courtesy: Aurélia Tahar
The Yamakasi are a real-life group of French daredevils who can scramble up the side of tall buildings and other urban structures as easily as most people can climb a flight of stairs. Filmmaker Luc Besson saw a television report on the Yamakasi and was so impressed that he wrote and produced this project as a vehicle for putting their unusual talents onscreen. One of the few films that captures the breathtaking skills of parkour so magnificently.
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