Film Screening: Rize
In support of David LaChapelle's <i>make, BELIEVE</i>
About the Event
Directed by David LaChapelle, RIZE (2005) reveals a groundbreaking dance phenomenon that’s exploding on the streets of South Central, Los Angeles. This documentary film brings to first light a revolutionary form of artistic expression borne from oppression.
“Rize” tracks the fascinating evolution of the dance: we meet Tommy Johnson (Tommy the Clown), who first created the style as a response to the 1992 Rodney King riots and named it “Clowning”, as well as the kids who developed the movement into what they now call Krumping.
Like “Paris is Burning” or “Style Wars” before it, “Rize” illuminates an entire community by focusing on an artform as a movement that the disenfranchised have created. But the true stars of the film are the dancers themselves.
The film offers an intimate portrayal of youth in South Central as they reveal their spirit and creativity.
“the most remarkable thing about Rize is that it is real.”
-Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times
“a compelling, bittersweet hybrid of a movie, one celebrating an enormous and hitherto unsung underground talent, while suggesting that art goes only so far in solving the enormous challenges of the underprivileged life.”
-Sid Smith of the Chicago Tribune
“Rize is an eye-popping lensing and an appreciation of social complexities combined for an entirely satisfying experience.”
-Robert Koehler