Blurb:

Situated squarely at a crossroads between fashion photography, documentary, MTV-like video, and the genre of dance film, Rize maps the sonic and visual terrain of the dance styles of clowning, krumping and stripper dance, taking the viewer on a journey to the inner city of South Central Los Angeles through the lens of Hollywood. Fashion photographer, David LaChappelle, uses his compositional skills to situate these fresh hip hop dance styles in a way that creates visually striking scenography contrasting vivid colours against scenes of urban decay and sonic compositions that flow between the words of the dancers, beat heavy tracks and appearances of some big voices from the music industry. Although dance is framed clearly as a positive force within the lives of the dancers and the communities of South Central, Rize raises many vital critical questions but leaves them un-tethered to any type of critical engagement. In many instances, the film relies heavily on imagery montage to create vital critical commentary on many of the vexed issues which it highlights. This chapter hopes to create a critical framework for many of the political issues this film raises but does not address.