Director Elegance Bratton places Vince Lawrence, a DJ and pioneering producer, as the anchor figure in this film that examines the birth and evolution of house music, which emerged on the heels of disco in South Side Chicago. The film focuses on Lawrence’s origins and the impact of the “Disco Demolition Night” (an event promoted by broadcaster Steve Dahl against disco music, repudiated by rock fans), a riot that exposed the racist and homophobic veins that inspired the initial rejection of disco, as well as its successor, house music.
The story of the birth of house music in the late 1970s, clandestinely, in Chicago clubs and at the birthplace The Warehouse. A film that gives credit and recognition to those who created this genre of music and how it evolved from disco to house music. The beat could be heard blocks away and was a challenge between locals, police and those who danced the night away.
Vince Lawrence is one of Chicago’s sons, one of the pioneers and catalysts of the house movement and one of the main figures in the film – “It wasn’t about what you wore, or how much money you had. It was about the feeling.”. Marshall Jefferson, another of the pioneers and author of one of the genre’s biggest hits – Move Your Body, which gives the film its title, says in the documentary: “House music is freedom. House music is joy. House music is life.” In the same vein, Frankie Knuckles – who began mixing elements of disco music with electronic elements – said that “clubs were a sanctuary. People left their worries at the door”. A natural sentiment that has lost its edge in a good way, as Jesse Sauders (“When we started, house music was just about having a good time. Nothing more, nothing less.”) or Chip E. (’We weren’t trying to make a movement, we were just trying to make people dance”).
And so, out of the underground dance clubs on South Side of Chicago, a group of friends turn a new sound into a global movement. As someone once said, “no party, no revolution”. (Helena César)
