Part of the Clair Obscur programme at l’Arvor

New York, early 1980s. The emerging practices of hip hop culture — graffiti, breaking, rap — collide with the city’s repression under mayor Ed Koch, who mobilises substantial funds, barriers and police dogs to clean up the subway.

A documentary by Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant, Style Wars stages a clash of narratives: on one side, institutions that criminalise. On the other, artists who assert a need to exist, to sign, to leave a visible trace in a city that ignores them. Who has the power to name what is visible? Who decides the value of a gesture?

Figures from the graffiti scene — Kase 2, Dondi, Skeme, Seen — and dancers from the Rock Steady Crew testify from inside a culture in the making.

Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Festival 1983. 70 min · USA · 1983 · subtitled original version.

Screening followed by a discussion with Teenage Kicks