Under the Influence of Ego Trip

Curated with Andreas Vingaard

Electric Boogie

Tana Ross, 1983, 30 min. 

This film intimately follows four African-American and Latino young people coming up in the early ’80s South Bronx, and their unflagging devotion to the art b-boy-ing and breaking. 

Beat This!: A Hip Hop History

Dick Fontaine, 1984, 60 min.

This tremendous, highly stylized BBC production features dynamic appearances by a veritable who’s who of original school luminaries: Kool Herc (in what are perhaps his most revealing and personal public interviews), Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force, the Cold Crush Brothers, Lisa Lee, Sha-Rock, graffiti writer Brim of Tats Cru, and Officer Kevin Hickey of the NYPD’s infamous Vandal Squad. Rhymed narration provided by NYC broadcasting legend Gary Byrd.

Q&A with Electric Boogie Dir. Tana Ross and Freke Vuijst and special guest

Under the Influence of Ego Trip

(80 Blocks From Tiffany & Shotgun)

80 Blocks From Tiffany, Dir. Gary Wiess (1979) 67 min.

Shotgun, Dir. Steven Goodman (1982) 25 min.

Egotrip and the Maysles Institute have partnered to present Egotrip’s favourite documentaries. 80 Blocks from Tiffany is a rich film where filmmaker Gary Wiess and cinematographer Joan Churchill hang out with the South Bronx gang, the Savage Skulls. In Shotgun, this party atmosphere turns tragic. Steven Goodman, who has gone on to lead the field of video education with EVC, provides a portrait of Shotgun, an eighteen-year-old gang member living in the South Bronx, facing serious criminal charges.

Both directors will be present as well as Ponce Laspina who is a former 5th Division President of the notorious Savage Skulls as well as Robert Werner a police officer featured in 80 Blocks from Tiffany.