The Pocket: The D.C. Go-Go Movement

The Pocket delves into the thriving but little-known subculture of "Go-Go," a variant of late-sixties soul developed on the streets of our nation's capital city.

Seven years after the riots of 1968 ruptured the economic infrastructure of Washington, DC, a musician named Chuck Brown emerged on "Chocolate City's" thriving live music scene and gave the community something to listen to.

With his group, The Soul Searchers, he incorporated contemporary genres ranging from funk to rock to soul and grounded his sounds with a syncopated conga and timbale-based bridge. This new style--Go-Go--and its culture are revealed by first-time filmmakers Cahill and Shumaker, through interviews and live footage from the scene's past and present.

Fugazi's Ian Mackaye, poet Thomas Sayers-Ellis, and writer Norman Kelley help portray the scene's powerful history that has impacted a number of contemporary musicians, including Henry Rollins, Puff Daddy, Jill Scott, Will Smith and George Clinton.

The film also introduces an important new character--the real DC--and offers a glimpse of some of the neighborhoods that aren't shown on tour buses and in travel brochures.