Friday,
June 13 at 7pm
Perspectivas
PLEASE
NOTE NEW DATE
Co-presented
by Afrotaino Productions
Perspectivas
- a
particular attitude toward or way of regarding something;
a
point of view and true
understanding of the relative importance of things;
a
sense of proportion
From
Mambo to Hip Hop
dir.
Henry Chalfant, US, video, 58 mins, color
Director
Henry Chalfont in Person
 From
Mambo to Hip-Hop
dances through the history of a borough that nurtured two musical
movements: the mambo that evolved into salsa, and the hip-hop
that arose from the most desperate days of the South Bronx.
Produced by Elena Martinez and Steve Zeitlin, principals in
the New York folklore group City Lore and directed by Henry
Chalfant, a longtime chronicler of the South Bronx who collaborated
on the early-80’s documentary Style Wars, From
Mambo to Hip Hop rushes by, driven by rhythms that change
through the decades.
The
documentary has exultant vintage segments from the 1950’s heyday
of mambo with musicians and especially dancers who shook everything
from head to toe while conga drums and timbales crackled with
Cuban rhythms and New York aggression. It also shows burned-out
buildings, gang fights and other factors — like the Cross Bronx
Expressway, which razed and divided neighborhoods — that made
the South Bronx a symbol of urban ruin in the 1970’s. But in
the wreckage, hip-hop was being created. Public parks and abandoned
buildings were turned into clubs as gangs sublimated rumbles
into battles of words and break-dance competitions. Conga drumbeats
sent break-dancers into motion, some of them reviving the most
flamboyant moves of the old mambo dancers. Even when much of
the South Bronx was rubble, Afro-Latin alliances were made and
cultural memory held strong.
Live
DJ set by DJ Ultraviolet (Ladies Love HipHop) and B-Boy
throwdown by
Y-Not
(Rocksteady Crew) and friends
Afrotaino
Productions brings their first film series celebrating musical
expressions with mucho sabor. Perspectivas features
films that capture the blend of Caribbean and Urban sounds that
comprise the legacy of the Afro-Latino diaspora. Afrotaino Productions
specializes in delivering witnesses to the explosive fusion
of Urban and Caribbean music and dance entertainment.
For
more information on this series and other Afrotaino Productions
events,
visit
www.myspace.com/afrotainoproductions.
|
