| Rize | 
 enlarge | Director: David Lachapelle
Actors: Tommy The Clown, Christopher Toler, Miss Prissy, Larry Berry, Lil C.
Studio: Lions Gate
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $3.56
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Avg. Customer Rating:  46 reviews
Sales Rank: 35948
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 84
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.7
MPN: LGED18311D
UPC: 031398183112
EAN: 0031398183112
ASIN: B000ARFPOO
Theatrical Release Date: 2004
Release Date: October 25, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: ******BRAND NEW****** ** Over 1.5 million orders shipped worldwide and more than 500 000 items in stock, BUY FROM A TRUSTED SOURCE, ESTABLISHED SINCE 1998 - INETVIDEO ~~~
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Product Description
An intimate completely fresh portrayal of youth in suoth central who have created art - & often family - where there was nothing. Surrounded by drug addiction gangs & impoverishment they have developed a unique style of dance that evolves on a daily basis. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 02/06/2007 Run time: 84 minutes Rating: Pg13
Amazon.com
The riveting documentary Rize explores the physically astounding Los Angeles worlds of clowning and krumping--both heightened and spectacular styles of hip-hop dance. With roots in breakdancing and the furious response to the Rodney King beating, clowning was launched by Tommy the Clown, a former drug runner turned children's-party-clown, with brightly colored jumpsuits and a psychedelic afro wig. To gather attention, Tommy began to gyrate and writhe in the street; before long, he was not only getting gigs, he'd inspired dozens of other clown groups, all with their own spin on face make-up and Tommy's dance moves. With a little cross-pollination from stripper dance moves and a good dose of aggression, clowning begat krumping, which resembles a cross between an epileptic seizure and ecstatic possession--what one practitioner calls "ghetto ballet." In addition to dancing that will make your eyes pop, Rize interviews dancers like Tight Eyez, La Nina, Lil C, and Miss Prissy, building a portrait of a subculture, culminating in a dance battle between clowns and krumps called BattleZone V. Directed by photographer and music video director David LaChappelle, Rize persuasively portrays these twin dance movements as not only a personal exorcism, but as the effort of a community to escape the corrosive forces of gangs and drugs. --Bret Fetzer
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| Customer Reviews: Read 41 more reviews...
 Love the subject, hate the director February 17, 2006
47 out of 57 found this review helpful
OK, much as my brother Jeffrey Mingo deserves props for his reviewing skills, I have to disagree with some of the praise heaped upon RIZE.
Now, don't get me wrong. The parts of the video that concentrated on the dancers were great. I particularly liked the way that Dragon, Lil C, Miss Prissy and Tommy the Klown got a bit of screen time to tell PARTS OF their stories.
The dancing itself was great too. No, make that totally awe-inspiring. I have no problem with that either.
My problems come from looking at the way David La Chapelle treated his young black subjects.
Too often, we applaud ANY representations of black youth that are in ANY way positive. But the problem here is that La Chapelle repeats a common trope among white middle class culture vultures (and I use that word deliberately): he reduces young urban working class "minority" kids to spectacle and surface.
The only person in the film able to break through that framing was Marquisa Gardner (Miss Prissy) who was able to convey a much more nuanced picture of some of the challenges and glories of her life despite La Chapelle's trite underlining of the "life in the ghetto is hell" motif. Ms Gardner's humanity shines through because of her personal charisma and talent at talking to the camera, rather than any empathy or delicacy on La Chapelle's part.
La Chapelle also repeats the old saw that the "cool" way to succeed is to be part of the entertainment industry. This is perhaps a highly-visible attitude amongst youngsters but it's a totally wasted opportunity to showcase a way of using dance as a way to rize in a more than simply metaphorical sense.
As a fashion photographer, La Chapelle has a long history of reducing black people to beautiful ornaments (like much of the work of Herb Ritts as another example). His photo shoots of Naomi Campbell in particular stand out as particularly mean-spirited examples (and I'm no big fan of Naomi's diva attitude, believe me).
As an anthropologist, I also have particular problems with the way he intercuts footage of Nuba wrestlers shot in the 1930s with shots of modern krumpers. On a very broad level, it is true that krumping (like ALL modern forms of African American dance) has commonalities with traditional dance forms found in Africa. But he gives us no sense of how this "dancing" is located in a particular context or culture. There's no sense of the importance of dance as an integral part of the way people prayed, honored the achievements of others, competed with others, made political statements and asserted their social status. Instead it's just presented as "savage dancing".
In the same way, RIZE often presents its LA subjects on _just_ the acceptable side of the same idea: The voice-over assertion that: "It's in their blood" seems a little too close to the idea that "Black people are just naturals for singing and dancing". This stupidity reduces the genuine skill and talent of the dancers to a matter of mere genetics. We don't need another reprise of Vince Sarich's tired racialist thinking.
In addition, this kind of simple-minded exoticism obscures the real stories behind the genesis and development of African American culture and the real complexity and richness of dance in both Africa and the New World. Just because kids from systematically segregated and historically anti-Black school systems aren't taught much about their history, that doesn't let privileged (and presumably educated) middle class film makers off the hook.
For more detailed and pointed criticism, visit the blog Rae's Spot. This sister has it right on point.
These days Black youth are being offered a great deal of money and a certain kind of temporary cultural prestige to become highly visible mannikins for a vicious and predatory consumer system that offers most of them almost nothing in return (beyond some jewelry and a few clothes). When you reduce black culture to a music video, you do nothing to counteract that. In fact, you're part of the problem.
Don't. Don't. Don't believe the hype.
 Black Youth Doin' Their Thizzle! June 26, 2005
16 out of 23 found this review helpful
This documentary covers a dance craze in South Central Los Angeles called "krumping" and the urban youth who partake in it. The movement was started by an adult who performs as a clown and thus clown imagery plays a big part in the subculture. This work shows that, despite poverty, black folk are great at making cultural works and having fun communally. This was an uplifting and eye-opening work.
I loved the way this film showed black youths celebrating their bodies. Participants weren't afraid to get sweaty. There is no director here to cast Halle Berry, Terrence Howard, or Vanessa Williams over others: the blacks here are dark-skinned and celebrate their melanin and rich, cocoa complexions. The males here are not afraid to dance in sexually passive ways with females. Furthermore, males were not afraid to be physical with each other. This documentary showed male and female, teens and toddlers, the thin and the fat, and then to a far lesser extent, the non-black with the black, doing their thang. Unfortunately, audience members consistently laughed at the fat dancers and I found this weightist and offensive.
The music in this film is bass-heavy and beat-heavy like East Coast hip-hop. It's not lighthearted and irrelevant like West Coast hip-hop. I wonder who made the decision to include the better musical style here.
This movie shows how the dance moves and painted faces is very similar to dances in Africa. Afrocentrists will love this perspective. (There is an emphasis on dancing that looks like fighting, so I'm surprised that Brazilian capoeira is not brought up.) Additionally, this movie is very churchy. Those who liked "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" will love the religiosity here. It is emphasized that the dancers are doing this rather than getting involved in drugs or violence. Anti-violence advocates and DARE supporters will love that. Though a documentary, I wonder if the director David LaChapelle knew how to market to specific members of the black community.
Different coast and different age cohorts, but this documentary and the interviewees involved will remind one sooooo much of "Paris Is Burning." Both involve disadvantaged, urban, subcultural artists. Both movements consist of tribes, be they "houses" or "crews." What happened to Venus Xtravaganza happens to Quimesha. However, this documentary is devoid of "shade" and "reading": participants actually support each other, rather than ripping each other down. Also, the interviewees here are politicized; they actually use the word "oppressed." Still, I wonder if the apoliticality of "Paris" and the political consciousness of "Rize" reflects the directors more than the participants.
This may be a new dance phenomenon, however, the steps are highly sexualized and remind me of much black dancing over the past two decades. These performers reminded me of fellow Californians MC Hammer and Oaktown 357 in that one moment they are shaking their private parts and the next they are praising Jesus. The sexual nature of this dance reminds me of what Chicagoans my age called "jacking," but is now referred to by younger Chicagoans as "juking." In New York during the 1990s, it was called "freaking." Thus, I am not sure how fresh this dancing is.
This film was PG-13, but it had many an interviewee who was under 13. Additionally, the audience in which I sat had MANY individuals under 13. I wonder if the rating will harm audience numbers or be unaffected by it.
 Should be REQUIRED Viewing for Everyone July 11, 2005
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
This movie may be about the urban phenomenon of krump and clown dancing but it is truly about so much more. The opening scene is old footage of the Watts riots and this theme of the cultural and social background of the kids that participate in this new art form is the thread that holds this movie together. Lachapelle is an amazing photographer and he brings his keen eye to the screen. This is a visually stunning movie without a doubt. But he brings his sensitivity to the social issues as well. He lets the kids and the community speak for themselves. It is often sad enough to get you crying but never despairing. There is such passion and self-awareness in these kids and in their dancing. The movements alone can elicit tears, and awe. There is a disclaimer at the start of the film stating the film was not sped up at any point. It is an important thing to state because you cannot believe how these dancers move themselves. Kids as young as 4 and 5, people in all shapes and sizes, all expressing their passion, anger, love, pain, humour with their bodies. Lachapelle makes sure to make all the links for you, from revival gospel links to African ritual dance, as well as the urgency this new subculture has driving it. It is plainly stated that these clown and krump crews have taken the place of gangs for many of the people involved and turned into non-violent gangs of their own. But it is also understood by the audience, the director and the people themselves that what they are now embracing has none of the violence or destructiveness that the gang life held for them. This is a changing movie, capable of true connection to any audience member. The emotions conveyed by the dancers coupled with the implied social commentary by the director (thankfully he only allows his voice to be heard a very few times, important to keep the flow in this movie) are so pure and direct that you do not need to be "of" these groups to feel what they are trying to say. I highly recommend it for everyone. I brought my 12 year old daughter, there is very little that would be objectionable to kids over 8. Under 8 kids just might not get it. There is some "stripper" dancing, but all clothes remain on. I did not notice alot of swearing even.
On Charge June 30, 2005
10 out of 13 found this review helpful
Before I say anything else, I have to say Lil' C is tight! Now...onto the movie. This movie is based on a young man who enjoyed being funny, dancing, and entertaining children. The mix of this brought him his clown persona. He brought his form of entertainment on to youth, who branched out and started their own cliques. The newer crew called it krumping but the similarites are endless. But what really caught my eye was how similiar many of the dances are to African dances. One reviewer said that the dances are too sexual with one group and remind him of the dances of the past two decades, but if he's ever watched African people dance, he will see some highly sexual moves there. It's just dancing. Nothing more. Nothing less. This movie had me at the edge of my seat trying to master the move, enjoy the back story, and connect with the dancers. I got a taste of the Watts, the violence, the betrayal, the competitiveness, the friendship, the family, and parenthood all in the mix of some GRIMY CRAZY FUN RAW TALENT. Great job, LaChapelle! Excellent job, Krumpers and Clowners!
clash of the titans! March 30, 2006
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
I have to strongly disagree with the prior reviewer Christopher Fung about the directors point of view and all the racial stuff, if you watch the additional footage of the DVD you would notice that this was a work of love, done with a shoebox budget over a couple of years, and don't forget we have African American directors and producers out there that don't come up with material half this good nor dedicate their time and energy over years to show us a reflection of ourselves. I say look at the subject matter, the art and the story and for once don't crucify the messenger, don't smear it with racial material, After all it's a documentary and if its not up to par with you then so be it, its just the directors point of view, not a racial vendetta, it is a free country after all, isn't it. I am not from the ghetto nor the hood, or perhaps I just don't get it, well that's the whole idea, I got an insert into that lifestyle, got educated as well, while being entertained in the process, now I know what some of my brothers and sisters are going through, and this is just a pinch of the struggle out there. I say embrace more work like this and it would inspire others to do more and perhaps one day it would eventually be to your liking. I say to others to extend the same courtesy to African American directors tackling challenging project of other races or cultures, it should not be a black or white thing but one of art and talent, don't you think.... now to the review the real reason I am here...lol.
I got goose pimples watching this documentary, off course we all have different opinion, however my perspective is as an African. It was fascinating to me to see these kids travel back home without even knowing it, travel to Africa without leaving California, there is indeed a spiritual presence in the dance of the heart! I have seen many great dances, dances of kings and warriors etc every move they made told a story, one that could be interpreted like a poem, lyric by lyric, line by line, this is a masterpiece, one that I have added to my collection of great classics over the years primarily because it's innovative. I bought extra copies for my folks back home, I know they would enjoy it.... I truly hope you all enjoy too, cause I did!
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