“The Holy Grail of hip-hop movies.”
—XLR8R
BLU-RAY HISTORY
Style Wars on Blu Ray
About 20 years ago, Tony Silver and I set out to digitize Style Wars in High Definition. For best results you must go back to the first generation, and make the transfer from the original edited negative.
To our great disappointment, we discovered that the negative had been badly damaged by moisture during the two decades it had been in storage. We were told that once we made the transfer, we could restore the film digitally, frame by frame, but that the cost would be astronomical. Sadly, we put the idea on the shelf. Tony died before realizing this dream.
In the years since, his widow, Lisa Citron, and I were able to raise the money for the film’s restoration, almost entirely through fan-based donations. Catherine Keener recruited celebrities from the world of film to contribute artworks they had made for a fundraising auction; a successful Kickstarter campaign raised enough money to produce the outtakes.
Lisa and I are very grateful to the Public Art Films board members, Carlos, Raquel, Sacha and Brian, for the bottomless well of their support for this project. Style Wars, the BluRay, is dedicated to the loving memory of Tony Silver, Burleigh Wartes, Jim Szalapski, Kippy Dee, Dondi, Shy 147, Kase 2, Rammellzee, Dez, Ty Fly, and Iz the Wiz.
THE DOCUMENTARY
The Original Style Wars
Directed by Tony Silver and produced by Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant, it was awarded the Grand Prize for Documentaries at the 1983 Sundance Film Festival. STYLE WARS is regarded as the indispensable document of New York Street culture of the early ’80s, the filmic record of a golden age of youthful creativity that exploded into the world from a city in crisis.
STYLE WARS captured the look and feel of New York’s ramshackle subway system as 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 MCs, DJs and B-boys rocked the city with new sounds and new moves and street corner breakdance battles evolved into performance art.
New York’s legendary kings of graffiti and b-boys own a special place in the hip hop pantheon. STYLE WARS has become an emblem of the original, embracing spirit of hip hop as it reached out across the world from underground tunnels, uptown streets, clubs and playgrounds.
THE FILMMAKERS
Tony Silver – Director / Producer
(April 15, 1935 – February 1, 2008) Tony Silver was a native of New York City, where he attended Columbia University and briefly pursued an acting career, before becoming the leading independent maker of movie trailers on the east coast. He began making his own films in 1970. Following Style Wars, he directed and produced a feature documentary, Arisman Facing The Audience, tracing the artistic and spiritual journeys from Manhattan to Guangzhou, China of Marshall Arisman, master painter, teacher, and storyteller, Marshall Arisman. Admired worldwide for uncompromising images of worldly violence and terror Arisman is seen as “an enchanter, a shaman,” perceived as a painter of “serial killer syndrome,” and the possessor of knowledge about the afterlife, that, says a colleague, he “won’t tell us [about it], he’s so fucking perverse.” Silver’s public television film Anita Ellis, For The Record documents a rare recording session by the legendary jazz-pop singer with the pianist Ellis Larkins. Broadcast on PBS and in England, Germany and Scandinavia. Silver’s first film, The Miss Nude America Movie (1970), documents the strange journey of a wheelchair-bound boy, founder of Naked City, Indiana. The film was shown at the New York Film Festival.
Henry Chalfant – Producer
Starting out as a sculptor in New York in the 1970s, Henry Chalfant turned to photography and film to do an in-depth study of hip-hop culture and graffiti art. He became one of the foremost authorities on New York subway art and other aspects of urban youth culture. His photographs record hundreds of ephemeral art works that have long since vanished. To Chalfant’s credit are three of the most influential documentations of aerosol art. He co-authored the book Subway Art (1984) with Martha Cooper and he co-produced the film Style Wars (1983) with the film’s director Tony Silver. In 1987 Chalfant co-authored the book Spraycan Art with James Prigoff, documenting the global expansion of graffiti. Each one of these documentary efforts have been embraced by the international graffiti community and they have served as cultural blueprints for graffiti art movements around the world. Chalfant also directed with Rita Fecher a documentary on South Bronx gangs, Flyin’ Cut Sleeves (1994) and he directed From Mambo to Hip Hop (2006) portraying two generations of Latino youth growing up in the South Bronx.
PRESS
“A breakthrough documentary.”
—A.O. SCOTT, THE NEW YORK TIMES
NEWS
Style Wars: The Outtakes Project
Hypebeast, 11/2011
Style Wars: Additional Footage
The Source, 11/18/2011
Help The Style Wars Project Preserve A Piece Of Hip-Hop History!
Global Grind, 11/18/2011
Style Wars: The Outtakes
More Than a Stance, 11/17/2011
Style Wars: The Outtakes
The World’s Best Ever, 11/17/2011
Style Wars Outtakes Shed Light on Hip-Hop History
Underwire at Wired.com, 11/08/2011
‘Style Wars’ Producers Launch Kickstarter Campaign To Retrieve Film Outtakes
BALLERSTATUS.COM, 11/08/2011
“Style Wars” Outtakes May Come To Release With New Kickstarter Campaign
HipHop DX, 11/07/2011
REVIEWS
“The best hip hop film ever made. Reveals hip hop in its purest state, capturing it before it was part of pop culture and a source of revenue for major corporate entities. The film shows the innocence of these young innovators who are considered forefathers of a movement bigger than they could have ever imagined. A superb job of showing the bond between the different elements, displaying how the art, music and dance are interchangeable and maintain a close symbiotic relationship.”
—Insomniac—DVD Highlights
“Evocative. Unforgettable. Style Wars emanates joy from both sides of the camera. A film that vibrates with the energy, poetry and color of an art form rising up from the streets. The two-disc DVD gives the film the deluxe treatment it deserves. Best DVD of the Year.”
—Nathan Rabin, The Onion
“The spark that lit a flame that continues to burn. Style Wars is a crucial point of history.”
—Andre Torres, Wax Poetics
“A remarkable document of graffiti culture at its apex. After seeing Style Wars, one can’t help but long for a bit of the chaos and creativity of the graffiti years.”
—Martin Edlund, New York Sun
“The Holy Grail of hip-hop movies.”
—XLR8R
“Visually the movie is as stunning as the film’s subjects are fascinating. And the accompanying soundtrack is used to amazing effect.”
—Brian Coleman, URB
“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
5 Stars—Highest Rating! The best hip hop culture study ever made.”
—Stuart Derdeyn, Vancouver Province.
“A stunning achievement. The mother and son constitute one of the most deeply human encounters I know of on film.”
—Ronald Gottesman, Professor of English, University of Southern California
“Captures this vibrant street culture with one of the most revelatory documents of the times.”
—Ethan LaCroix, Time Out New York
“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
“Hip hop’s Rosetta Stone.”
—VIBE
“Groundbreaking and nearly perfect, a heady slice of Americana. It’s the kids themselves who speak most eloquently to their work.”
—Mark Savlov, Austin Chronicle
AWARDS
WINNER
Grand Prize for Documentaries, Sundance Film Festival 1984
Chicago, Houston and Athens Film Festivals
Grand Prize, Montreal Festival of Films on Art
Prized Pieces Award, National Black Programming Consortium
OFFICIAL SELECTION
RiverRun Film Festival, Cinema Paradise/Honolulu 2004
Tribeca Film Festival, New York 2003
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2003
Stockholm International Film Festival 2003
Oulu (Finland) Music Film & Video Festival 2003
H2O International Film Festival (New York) 2003
Bergen (Norway) International Film Festival 2003
Barcelona In-Edit Music Film Festival (Audience Award) 2003
Black Soil Film Festival (Rotterdam) 2003
Walker Art Center, Siskel Film Center, International House of Philadelphia 2003
REVelation Film Festival (Perth, Australia) 2002
Official Selection, Toronto and Sydney International Film Festivals
TELEVISED SHOWINGS
Broadcast on PBS, Channel Four (UK) and Western Europe.
WEB AWARDS
The Style Wars flash website was the People’s Voice Winner at the 2006 Webby Awards. Site coming soon!
SAMPLING
CHECK OUT WHO’S SAMPLING STYLE WARS.
GALLERY
“The spark that lit a flame that continues to burn.
Style Wars is a crucial point of history.”
—ANDRE TORRES, WAX POETICS
TRAINS
All train photos by Henry Chalfant. Train selections from the STYLE WARS filming era.
CULTURE
All Culture photos by Henry Chalfant. Classic photos taken around the time STYLE WARS was in production.
BLU-RAY INFO
When director Tony Silver and partner-producer Henry Chalfant delivered the broadcast version of their prize-winning film to PBS in 1983, the world received its first full immersion into a phenomenon that had taken over New York City. Graffiti artists had invented a new visual language in New York’s ramshackle subway system using trains as their canvas. Mayor Ed Koch, the police, and the New York Transit Authority struggle to combat the rising tide of street art, while MC’s, DJ’s and B-boys rock the city, turning street corner breakdance battles into performance art.
Style Wars embraces the spirit of hip hop as it exploded into the world from underground tunnels, uptown streets, clubs and playgrounds. New York’s legendary kings of graffiti own a special place in the hip hop pantheon. This film is regarded by many as the definitive document of the emerging hip hop culture, and the continuing struggle to keep its authentic spirit alive.
The Film:
• Style Wars, finally in HD. A beautiful new 2K transfer from the original 16mm print.
• Feature commentary by director-producer Tony Silver and producer Henry Chalfant.
• Digitally Remastered 5.1 Dolby soundtrack.
• English subtitles for the hearing impaired.
The Extras:
• The Outtakes: A brand new 40 min film. With the help of donors and fans from Kickstarter we sorted through almost 30 hours of left over materials to bring you hidden gems and fascinating moments never before seen. Also transferred to HD from the original 16mm, The Outtakes is part nostalgia and part hindsight, taking fans back in time to tell new stories, show slightly different perspectives and delve deeper into the world of early 80’s New York City.
• B-Boy Showcase: 10 minutes of fast paced phenomenally acrobatic gems. The Rocksteady Crew at their tour launch party, in the studio, on the streets, and battling it out against Dynamic Rockers at the United Skates of America in Queens.
Style Wars In The Cutting Room: In the summer of ’83 a camera crew visited Valkhn Films, an editing house where Style Wars was being painstakingly sliced together. This 25 min piece is a rare glimpse at the process of telling a real story as it’s happening and the people who kept it real. See editor Sam Pollard, director Tony Silver, supervising editor Victor Kanefsky, and more, make history in this unusual and candid short.
The soundtrack features classics performed by The Sugar Hill Gang, The Treacherous Three, The Fearless Four, Grand Master Flash and The Furious Five, Trouble Funk, Rammellzee / K-Rob and Dion. New York’s kings of graffiti and b-boys own a special place in the hip hop pantheon. In Style Wars they continue to empower new generations with the original spirit of hip hop, as it reached out from underground tunnels, from uptown streets, clubs and playgrounds, to the world at large
Blu-Ray FAQ’s
Is the Blu-Ray available in Europe?
Yes, the Blu-Ray is All Regions
Does the Blu-Ray have closed captioning?
Yes, both the film and the extras have closed captioning
What languages is the Blu-Ray available in?
English
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