FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Wild Style 

For all those of an older age who grew up in New York, the Times Square Show will probably be remembered. It took place in 1980 as a comprehensive event and offered artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring a stage. If you want to delve deeper into history, the show took place in a massage parlour on 41st Street. We know such converted shops from the 00s in Neukölln or today in Lichtenberg or Schöneweide. Something like this must be raw and urban, like the former drinks warehouse of our old supplier, where artists have now set up their studios. At least it's right on the Spree and nice and cheap. This is exactly the kind of thing that no-wave filmmaker Charlie Ahearn filmed with his Super 8 camera on the Lower Eastside. The beginning of a dream that was to be called Wild Style - the blending of video art, fashion, music, performance, and so on. Wild Style was supposed to be a love song to all the graffiti artists of the early 80s. And of course they wanted to capture the hip hop that was being done outside on the streets, which is why Wild Style was shot right in the Bronx. In other words, where hip hop was born around 1974. Starring: Graffiti artists, breakdancers, rappers and they just play themselves. Of course, a production like this is always no budget. No filming permit, but a lot of milieu. In DIY, a world shines in which anything is possible! Next to buildings that look as bombed out as Kreuzberg in the 80s, murals shine. Wild Style puts forward a thesis that is surprising today and counts hip hop among other New York sub-cultures such as punk or new wave. An art movement can only be complete if it combines dance, music and visuals. That's why we jump from a basketball match to the breakdancers of the Rock Steady Crew, then to one by the old-school rap legend Busy Bee and end up with Grandmaster Flash. A documentary or a fictional drama? Cut out 20 minutes and you're left with a doc (very interesting for our director Lea, who wants to feed a doc about our bar with extra scenes). The story seems like a series of attempts, but you don't necessarily follow them (and neither does Wild Style). For example, the graffiti artist who pines for his ex-girlfriend Rose (Sandra "Lady Pink" Fabara). At one point, two graffiti artists are even taken to an upscale cocktail party on the Upper East Side, and Wild Style proves to be a successful social satire. None of the subplots turn out to be drama; everything somehow goes on without a hitch. Narrative tension or moral messages? Fortunately not! Here, ordinary people simply go on living their lives, helping to shape the Bronx a little. No one rises above this urban shambles. No one is looking for a way out, everyone just wants to express themselves. At one point, a group of kids are asked if they know any graffiti artists. "We're all graffiti artists"; they say happily. Everyone raps, dances and writes. Not from a stage, but in the middle of the crowd. That's why there are no camera tricks or other cinematic antics. Wild Style was created precisely in this world; it is never above what it shows. Today, Wild Style is considered the very first hip hop film - but it doesn't introduce hip hop at all. That had long been done by word of mouth. Shortly after, the first commercial films like Beat Street and Breakin' were made - yet for quite a while Wild Style was the highest-grossing film in New York City. Or the second highest, if you want to check, you should visit imdb. Wild Style became a huge success especially here in Berlin. On both sides of the Berlin Wall! We in the West could use the Wall for graffiti. A few school friends even wanted to create the longest graffiti in West Berlin. Whole sections of the Wall were now Wild Style! But not only in Berlin, everywhere Wild Style developed into a cult film, distributed on VHS. Our DVD is from 2007 - a nice nostalgia trip. Because Wild Style rejects common dramaturgy, it remains all the fresher. Welcome back to 1982!