2008 Woodie Awards
Hip-hop examined in film
St. Rose film series continues on important issues
Kyle Griffin
Issue date: 2/27/08 Section: Entertainment
The hip-hop culture is getting a fresh review thanks to a continuing movie series at The College of Saint Rose. The Diversity/Social Justice Film series is gearing up again for another semester and the featured showing will look at the masculinity, violence, homophobia, and sexism in hip-hop music.
"Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes" is a documentary written and directed by Byron Hurt. The film originally aired as part of the PBS series "Independent Lens." It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won Best Documentary at the San Francisco Black Film Festival.
Many prominent artists from a variety of music genre's participated in the movie, including Busta Rhymes, Chuck D, and Mos Def.
"I was seeing video after video after video of rappers posing, posturing… throwing money at the camera, mad women around them dancing, and I was like, yo, I want to, I need to do a film that breaks all of this stuff down," Hurt said in an interview with PBS.
Former President of Student Association, Omar "O-Diddy" Lopez started the film series last year during his presidency. He said he teamed up with Latisha Barnett, Director of Student Life, and Steve Hoff , professor of psychology at Saint Rose, to "promote films which were interesting, relevant, and were ripe for discussion." This movie is the series' second pursuit into the topics of hip-hop culture.
The series has hosted many other movies on a variety of topics. Some notable films included "Babel" and "Into the Wild" last semester and "Salud!" in January. Two more films are slated to be shown in the coming months at the Hubbard Interfaith Sanctuary: "Water" and "In Good Conscience."
The Office of Student Life does not sponsor all of the showings, however. Several organizations on campus have offered a showing as part of the film series. The Offices of Campus Ministry and Community Services are some of the other movie sponsors.
One distinguishing feature of this particular event is that the advertising has been greatly increased from previous nights.
"Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes" is a documentary written and directed by Byron Hurt. The film originally aired as part of the PBS series "Independent Lens." It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won Best Documentary at the San Francisco Black Film Festival.
Many prominent artists from a variety of music genre's participated in the movie, including Busta Rhymes, Chuck D, and Mos Def.
"I was seeing video after video after video of rappers posing, posturing… throwing money at the camera, mad women around them dancing, and I was like, yo, I want to, I need to do a film that breaks all of this stuff down," Hurt said in an interview with PBS.
Former President of Student Association, Omar "O-Diddy" Lopez started the film series last year during his presidency. He said he teamed up with Latisha Barnett, Director of Student Life, and Steve Hoff , professor of psychology at Saint Rose, to "promote films which were interesting, relevant, and were ripe for discussion." This movie is the series' second pursuit into the topics of hip-hop culture.
The series has hosted many other movies on a variety of topics. Some notable films included "Babel" and "Into the Wild" last semester and "Salud!" in January. Two more films are slated to be shown in the coming months at the Hubbard Interfaith Sanctuary: "Water" and "In Good Conscience."
The Office of Student Life does not sponsor all of the showings, however. Several organizations on campus have offered a showing as part of the film series. The Offices of Campus Ministry and Community Services are some of the other movie sponsors.
One distinguishing feature of this particular event is that the advertising has been greatly increased from previous nights.
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