Highbridnation is reporting that The Hollywood Black Film Festival (HBFF) has announced the world premier of Two Turntables and a Microphone, a documentary about the life and death of Run DMC’s great DJ, Jam Master Jay (Jason Mizell). According to the website:

The premiere will take place on Tuesday, June 3, at 8 p.m., the film festival’s opening night at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills. Two Turntables and a Microphone not only celebrates the life and times of this Hip Hop icon but also documents the investigation his still unsolved murder.

The film features interviews with Russell Simmons, Run DMC, Jay-Z, Method Man and more which not only provide insight into the legendary DJ’s life but some believe could provide information that could finally help police solve the murder.

This is long overdue and is such a tragic story. Hopefully some good will come out of this and his killer(s) will be found.

Silverdocs, an AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Film Festival is hosting the North American premiere of Hip Hop Revolution. Hip Hop Revolution is a film by Weaam Williams documenting the 25 year evolution of hip hop in South Africa.

In the Cape Flats, outside Cape Town, South Africa the music of the South Bronx found a receptive audience who recognized in the American ghettos problems similar to their own. Economic apartheid is not so far from political apartheid, to the person trapped within. Despite isolation by the Western boycott during the 1980s and censorship by their own government, South Africans heard and found inspiration in American hip-hop from early East Coast right up through Public Enemy and NWA and in the break dancing and graffiti art that accompanied turntablism and street poetry.The result is an indigenous South African hip-hop culture, rich with African rhythms far more explicit than the indirect influence of that continent on American R&B, and deeply expressive of the obstacles facing post-Apartheid youth: HIV-AIDS, poverty, unemployment, gangsterism, poor access to education, and gender inequity. In interviews with South African musicians and artists past and present, including members of the influential Prophets of Da City (POC), Weaam Williams gives voice to South Africa’s hip-hop subculture, and reminds Western viewers of the complexity of black experience, at home and worldwide.

(more…)

New York City is hosting the H20 (Hip-Hop Odessey) International Film Festival, the world’s largest largest hip hop film fest.

The film festival is in its fifth year of celebrating hip hop cinema, education, art and culture. The festival kicked off on May 31 and runs through June 17, screening over 100 media pieces and hosting 9 panel discussions. This weekend’s panels include rapper Pharoahe Monch, hip hop journalist/historian Davey D, and DJ Bobbito Garcia. All panels are free, appropriate for all ages, and open to the community.

For more details of the events, panels and film information including tickets sales, please visit http://www.h2oiff.org.

Wow. I guess this is what happens when you learn about things at the last minute. But the key is, I learned. Ha. Well I definitely plan to hit this event up in the future. It’s right up fhh’s alley.