Welcome to our Film section, here you can read about all the great movies, shorts, and documentaries we will be screening at the festival. For each film you will find a short sinopsis, run time, director info., and in some cases a trailer will appear if you scroll over the image of the film poster. You won’t want to miss any of these films so be sure to get your all access pass for the festival now! For more details and ticket info (click here)
Quality of Life
Benjamin Morgan
Quality of Life is a narrative feature film that tells the gripping and authentic story of Michael “Heir” Rosario and Curtis “Vain” Smith, the most prolific and talented graffiti writers in the Mission District in San Francisco. They live a life of dreary dead-end day jobs and illicit late night graffiti, hitting up spots across the dark walls and lost tunnels of San Francisco. However, one unlucky evening, the boys are busted for painting and everything changes. Faced with restitution and the prospect of serving hard time, Heir and Vain struggle to maintain. As the cops close in again, the paths they choose threaten to unravel their lifelong friendship and, ultimately, their lives.
United States | 84 minutes | 2004
BORF!
Paris Bustillos
In 2004 a wave of stenciled graffiti swept the country, sparking frustration and curiosity nation wide. For John Tsombikos (the artist behind the Borf Graffiti), his regret ofver the loss of a friend had turned into a street fight, which he defended with a can of spray paint and a cardboard cutout of his best friend, Borf. (Commentary By The DCIFF)
United States | 28 minutes | 2005
From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale
Henry Chalfant
Presents a panoramic view of the music that blossomed in the Latino community of the South Bronx from the late 1940′s when mambo burst onto the New York cultural scene, through the birth of Hip-Hop in the 1970′s. The film chronicles two generations who grew up literally on the same streets, and both used rhythm as their form of rebellion – for the older generation it was the pulsating rhythms of Cuba; for their children it was the rhythms of Hip-Hop.
United States | 55 minutes | 2009
Who Is Bozo Texino?
Bill Daniel
Who is Bozo Texino? chronicles the search for the source of a ubiquitous and mythic rail graffiti– a simple sketch of a character with an infinity-shaped hat and the scrawled moniker, “Bozo Texino”– a drawing seen on railcars for over 80 years. Daniel’s gritty black and white film uncovers a secret society and it’s underground universe of hobo and railworker graffiti. During his quest he discovered the roots of a folkloric tradition that has gone mostly unnoticed for a century. Taking inspiration from Beat artists Robert Frank and Jack Kerouac, the film functions as both a sub-cultural documentary and a stylized fable on wanderlust and outsider identity.
This film is available for purchase on Bill Daniels Website
United States | 56 minutes | 2005
Graffitti Research lab:The Complete First Season
Roth & Powderly
From their origins in trash to their emergence as instigators, Graffitti Research Lab: The Complete First Season documents the adventures of an architect and an engineer who quit their jobs to mock the Dept of Homeland Security. Narrated by GRL co-founders Roth and Powderly, this film was screened at the 2008 Sundance film festival and we are pleased to include it here at bootleg.
United States | 13 minutes | 2008
Embed
Mark Jenkins
In this series, Jenkins dresses his life size tape casts in clothing to create realistic sculptures which he installs in various positions in urban evironments–stuck into traffic cones, trash bags, cans, etc. He documents the reaction of the people who pass by them with video. The most watched of these videos features a figure sculpture positioned to create an illusion that it is sticking its head into a wall.
United States | 4 minutes | 2006
Chocolate City Burning
Apoxy One
A documentary chronicling one of the most prominent crews to emerge from Washington DC’s graffiti-boom of the 1990’s, the film follows an oddly mixed group of three friends; Sime, Demon and Mega, as they gained notoriety throughout the city in the late 90’s for doing enormous, elaborate, three dimensional murals. As Con, a noteworthy writer from Baltimore says: “it wasn’t just another piece on a wall…the Dot-Com pieces stood off the wall, they created a whole environment.” Eventually the crew would spread out to other cities, and the three founding members grew older and father apart. Demon moved to Japan for many years as a world class industrial designer, Mega would spend the next many years in courtrooms and rehabs and Sime continues to live, paint and bomb in Washington DC. Now all in their 30’s, their interviews and reflections on their youth make very clear that, when all was said and done, graffiti was about more than painting, it was a coming of age and a crossing of worlds. “DC was separated by that one fucking park, Rock Creek Park, black, white.” Says Demon, “DC being so segregated, that really meant something, because, to put it in a term, Dot-Com crossed the park”. (commentary by upset the setup)
United States | 54 minutes | 2009
City Of God’s Son
Kenzo Digital
Created by artist Kenzo Digital, the project consists of a 60-minute audio adventure created entirely out of samples. In the City Of God’s Son’s coming of age story, we follow three friends Nas, Jay-Z and Ghostface as they navigate through a surreal, alternate reality version of New York. Look for appearances from supporting characters like Biggie, Samuel L. Jackson, Raekwon and Lawrence Fishburne. (Commentary by Complex)
United States | 60 minutes | 2009
Number One With A Bullet
QD3
“From the ghettos of Philadelphia to the boardrooms of Los Angeles, <I>Number One With A Bullet</I> pulls back the curtain on gun violence in Hip Hop. This documentary follows five rappers with experience on both ends of the barrel (Young Buck, B Real, Obie Trice, The Last Mr. Bigg, and 40 Glocc) as they take viewers back to the scenes of the crimes and into their darkest hours. They are joined by a diverse cast of Hip Hop luminaries (Mos Def, KRS One, Ice Cube and more), community activists, police officers, doctors and citizens to expose the physical, mental and emotional scars of gun violence in the streets and in the music. From the makers of Beef, QD3 Entertainment brings you Number One With A Bullet, a groundbreaking look into the epidemiology of gun violence within Urban America.
United States | 1hr 45min minutes | 2009
Youth Movement Records
This video, produced in 2009, gives a quick video-snapshot of Youth Movement Records, a non-profit youth run recording and media company based in Oakland, California.
United States | 4min minutes | 2009
Where You From
Sabrina Lee
A surprising journey into rural American hip-hop, Where You From follows a beat far from the urban streets where the music was born. With dense redwood forests, rocky mountain vistas, and the dramatic rhythms of hip-hop as a backdrop, Where You From enters the lives of three extraordinary individuals as it chronicles their pursuit of acceptance, fame, and even salvation. The feature length documentary is a visually stunning, provocative portrait of young men confronting small town life, broken families, and drug addiction– ultimately seeking triumph in their music.
United States | 1hr 16min minutes | 2009
Hip Life
Eli Jacobs – Fantauzzi
Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s new film, HomeGrown: HipLife in Ghana, is a feature-length documentary about V.I.P. (Vision In Progress). The film documents ten years of their journey from the ghetto in Accra to their first international tour. They grow from being teenagers with a shared dream to musicians with fans around the world.
Ghana | 61 minutes | 2007
Sling Shot Hip-Hop
Jackie Reem Salloum
Slingshot Hip Hop braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel as they discover Hip Hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty. From internal checkpoints and Separation Walls to gender norms and generational differences, this is the story of young people crossing the borders that separate them.
Palestine| 83 minutes | 2008
Say My Name
Nirit Peled
Set in the multicultural inner-city communities of London, New York, Chicago, Philly, Detroit, Los Angeles and Atlanta, Say My Name tells the stories of female MCs and R&B singers, and the women they inspire. The story is built around narratives from these entrepreneurs, mothers and artists, who are fighting to be themselves in a society that creates few chances for women.
United States| 75 minutes | 2009
Democracy in Dakar
Magee McIlvaine, Chris Moore, & Ben Herson
African Underground: Democracy in Dakar is a groundbreaking documentary film about hip-hop youth and politics in Dakar Senegal. The film follows rappers, DJs, journalists, professors and people on the street at the time before during and after the controversial 2007 presidential election in Senegal and examines hip-hop’s role on the political process. Originally shot as a seven part documentary mini-series released via the internet – the documentary bridges the gap between hip-hop activism, video journalism and documentary film and explores the role of youth and musical activism on the political process.
Senegal| 1hr 09 minutes | 2008
Alter Ego
Daniel Thouw
Various| 62 minutes | 2008
Thru You (Just A Lady)
Kutiman
Kutiman, a man born in Jerusalem with tags such as musician, composer, producer and animator has come up with an on-line album. All samples have been taken from YouTube users and then mixed and edited together.
Jerusalem| 3 minutes | 2009
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