Style Wars is the legendary hip-hop documentary and a timeless
film classic, the indispensable record of a golden age of youthful creativity and exploding hip hop subculture.
Directed and produced by Tony Silver and photographer Henry Chalfant, Style Wars
was awarded the Grand Prize for Documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival in 1984. New York’s
Tribeca Film Festival, at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and numerous other festivals, where
it screened with Style Wars :ReVisited, its new companion film, produced from the new 2-disc package
recently named Best DVD of the Year by The Onion.
With the abridged one-hour broadcast premiere of Style Wars on PBS and Britain’s
Channel Four in 1984, the world received its first full immersion into the phenomenon that had taken
over New York City. The urban landscape had been physically transformed by graffiti artists, who invented
a new visual language to express both their individuality, and the voice of their community. Style Wars
captures the look and feel of New York’s ramshackle subway system as the graffiti writers’ public
playground, battleground and spectacular artistic canvas. Opposing them by every means possible were
Mayor Edward Koch, the police, and the New York Transit Authority. Meanwhile, MC’s, DJ’s
and B-boys were rocking the city with new sounds and new moves, as street corner breakdance battles became
performance art.
Awards:
Sundance Film Festival
Grand Prize for Documentary
Chicago Film Festival
Prize Winner
Toronto International Film Festival
Official Selection
Tribeca Film Festival
Official Selection
Edinburgh International Film Festival
Official Selection
Stockholm International Film Festival
Official Selection
Reviews:
"Remarkable! A movie that, per KRS-One, ‘anybody who wants to understand
hip hop needs to see.’ Also anyone who wants to understand New York, and a lot more."
- Premiere
"The importance of the film is even greater now than when it was released."
- David Jakubiak,
Chicago Sun-Times
"Talk about groundbreaking films: Style Wars, a documentary about graffiti
artists, was first broadcast by PBS. A prescient study of taggers, their exuberant art and the roots
of hip-hop culture."
- Joe Morgenstern,
Wall Street Journal
Director: Tony Silver Producer: Tony Silver, Henry Chalfant Cast: Cap, Frosty Freeze, Kase 2, Edward Koch, Crazy Legs, Mare, Seen, Skeme Run Time:70 minutes www.stylewars.com
