After Trayvon – Kevin Powell

Bucktown USA Entertainment teamed-up with journalist / political activist Kevin Powell to shoot this extensive discussion film featuring the thoughts and opinions of nine Black and Latino youngsters in NYC following the recent shooting of Trayvon Martin.

Hip-Hop Revolucion Documentary Trailer – Jody McIntyre / Pablo Navarrete

Promo clip to generate funding and interest in the upcoming documentary “Hip-Hop Revolucion” which will look at the positive impact the culture has had on the youth of Venezuela.

The Art Of Rap Documentary Trailer – Ice-T / Eminem / Big Daddy Kane / Ice Cube etc.

Trailer for the forthcoming Ice-T-directed documentary “Something From Nothing: The Art Of Rap” featuring the likes of Grandmaster Caz, Ice Cube, Q-Tip, Common and many more.

Big Fun In The Big Town DVD Trailer – Run DMC / LL Cool J / Schoolly D etc.

Trailer for the forthcoming DVD release of Dutch film-maker Bram Van Splunteren’s classic 1986 documentary “Big Fun In The Big Town” which was filmed in NYC and features Hip-Hop icons such as Run DMC, Doug E. Fresh, Grandmaster Flash and more.

DEMOS Documentary Trailer – Kareem Fort / Skyzoo

Trailer for the forthcoming Kareem Fort-directed documentary “DEMOS: An Independent Artist’s Guide To Success” which will features interviews with Skyzoo, Naughty By Nature, DJ Quik, Rapper Big Pooh, Jean Grae and more.

Shine On – J. Dilla

Trailer for the forthcoming Dilla documentary “Still Shining” featuring Pete Rock, Busta Rhymes, Phat Kat, Common, Q-Tip etc – definitely looking forward to seeing this.

Showbusiness – Michael Rapaport / A Tribe Called Quest

Lenghty interview with Michael Rapaport at the Sundance 2011 film festival about his Tribe documentary “Beats, Rhyme & Life”.

Bonus Footage: Phife Dawg accompanies Rapaport in a Q&A session about the documentary.

Behind The Beat – Stones Throw Documentary Trailer

Trailer for French TV documentary featuring head-honcho Peanut Butter Wolf taking viewers behind-the-scenes of his long-standing independent label Stones Throw.

What Is Canadian Hip-Hop? – Hip-Hop Eh Documentary Trailer

Trailer for Joe Klymkiw’s Canadian Hip-Hop documentary “Hip-Hop Eh” which features the likes of Maestro Fresh Wes, Moka Only, Swollen Members and Classified discussing the development of Canada’s rap scene throughout the years.

From The Ground Up – DEMOS Documentary Trailer

Trailer for the upcoming documentary “DEMOS: An Independent Artist’s Guide To Success” featuring the likes of Murs, Pete Rock & CL Smooth and Naughty By Nature.

Old To The New Q&A – Florian Gaag (Wholetrain Director)

A genuine labour of love and years in the making, “Wholetrain”, the cinematic debut of German director Florian Gaag, finally saw a worldwide DVD release in late November. Telling the story of four graffiti writers attempting to balance the pressures of normal everyday life with their nocturnal spray-paint activitities, “Wholetrain” has not only won a number of awards at various film festivals across the globe, but has also received praise from many connected to the graffiti scene, such as KRS-One, “Subway Art” author / photographer Henry Chalfant and legendary NYC artist KET.

Here, Florian Gaag talks about the obstacles he encountered whilst attempting to make “Wholetrain”, competing with much-loved graf-flicks “Wild Style” and “Style Wars”, plus how he also managed to pull in a number of Hip-Hop legends for the film’s soundtrack.

Why was it important to you to actually make a film like “Wholetrain”?

“My personal history in graffiti culture, I started writing in Munich, Germany back in 1984, inspired me to come up with the idea for the project. I thought there was a fictional film missing portraying the culture in a decent way. The classic graffiti movies of the 1980s, “Style Wars” and “Wild Style”, weren’t fictional films, but a documentary and a docudrama. So with “Wholetrain” I wanted to bridge that gap. Also, I wanted to take a different approach, portraying the culture from a writers point of view, since in most TV shows and films graffiti-writing is nothing more than a hip, colourful background or, even worse, shown in a totally unrealistic, one-dimensional way.”

Was making the film a difficult process?

“It was hell. Producers and funders were very suspicious, they didn’t really want to invest in a project that deals with graffiti-writing. Once I had production partners and the funding together it was close to impossible to get shooting permission. The German railway company refused to collaborate and informed all other European railway companies about the project so the film would be blocked. It took us almost three years before we got the go in Warsaw, Poland. Then when we finally had finished the film, theatre owners refused to show it because they were scared writers might wreck their theatres.”

“Wholetrain” has been compared to classic graffiti themed films such as “Wild Style” and “Style Wars” – did you feel any pressure during the making of the film knowing such comparisons were going to be made?

“”Style Wars” and “Wild Style” are iconic films that I very much treasure, but I didn’t really feel any pressure. I was always aware of the fact though that there’s a thin line between a fictional film about graffiti culture working or not and it was difficult at times to balance it out.”

You worked with a number of well known graf artists on the project – were you quite specific about how you wanted the graffiti pieces in the film to look or did you let the artists just do their thing?

“I worked with NEON, WON ABC, CEMONOZ, PURE TFP, CIEL and MONS. I decided on the writing names, pre-planned the general look and talked about styles to represent the different crews with NEON, but I pretty much gave them complete freedom for the pieces.”

The soundtrack is obviously an important part of the film – how did you choose the artists you wanted to work with and was it stressful producing the soundtrack album as well as directing the film itself?

“I wanted to work with people who have love for graffiti culture or have been active as writers themselves, like for example Tame One of the Artifacts. Other artists I worked with were KRS-One, Planet Asia, Afu-Ra, O.C., Freddie Foxxx, Akrobatik, El Da Sensei, Grand Agent and Reef The Lost Cauze. I produced the beats, then sent the artists the files, the according scene from the film and some thoughts and ideas I wanted them to address in their lyrics. Then we organized the recording sessions which took place in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles and Munich. It was almost like making another movie and was very time-consuming and demanding.”

What do you want people to take away from the film after they’ve seen it?

“I’d really like to leave that up to the audience. But it was definitely one of my intentions to show the human dimension of graffiti-writing, the people behind the pieces on the walls and trains, so I’m always glad if an audience who has never been in direct contact with graffiti-writing before sees the culture differently after watching “Wholetrain” and lets go of some preconceived notions.”

Do you have any other film projects coming up?

“I just started pre-production for my new film. It will be very different from “Wholetrain” though. In terms of the genre it’s a drama with thriller and horror elements.”

Ryan Proctor

“Wholetrain” Trailer

Spraycan Art – The Graff Life

Trailer for new graffiti documentary “The Graff Life”.

Black August Documentary Trailer – Common / Talib Kweli / Dead Prez

Trailer for the upcoming documentary “Let’s Get Free: The Black August Hip-Hop Project”.

“The Black August Hip Hop Project strives to promote human rights though supporting and influencing the global development of Hip Hop culture. By facilitating exchanges between international communities where Hip Hop is a vital part of youth culture, they promote awareness about the social and political issues that affect our global communities. Their vision is to bring culture and politics together and to allow them to naturally evolve into a unique Hip Hop consciousness that informs our collective struggle for a more just, equitable and human world. This film documents the movement through a series of interviews and performances with hip hop artists and key members of the black activist movement.”

The Bible Of Hip-Hop – The Source

Trailer for the forthcoming Raw Report / 88Era documentary “The Bible Of Hip-Hop” charting the highs and lows of arguably the most influential Hip-Hop magazine ever – looks like this is going to be an interesting project that really tells all sides of the mag’s story.

A Day In The Life – Sticky Fingaz

“A Day In The Life” Movie Trailer.

Onyx member Sticky Fingaz puts a new twist on the hood flick formula in his directorial debut by having the entire cast rap their dialogue – an idea that’s perhaps not as corny as it sounds.