Jamel Shabazz Street Photographer

During the birth of hip-hop, Jamel Shabazz captured the styles and attitudes of Brooklyn street life in a series of collaborative, theatrically posed group photographs that became a cornerstone of the movement’s music and style. In addition to all the Puma Suedes, Kangols, and pin-striped Jordaches that you would expect, the film Jamel Shabazz Street Photographer, Charlie Ahearn’s first in over a decade, tells some of the stories behind the photographs (often tragic) in conversations with Shabazz, graffiti pioneer and hip-hop historian Fab 5 Freddy, legendary rapper KRS-One, and more. Ahearn’s graffiti movie Wild Style (1982) was one of the landmark documents of hip-hop culture; this film sees him return to the streets and era that he too helped define. (81 mins., HDCAM)