Legendary Graffiti Film ‘Style Wars’ Released on DVD
“Style Wars,” the seminal film on graffiti and the early roots of hip hop culture has just been re-released in DVD format. Music Video Distribution has taken the 1983 original PBS documentary release and dubbed it into digital form, in accordance with director, Tony Silver, and producer, Henry Chalfant.
The double-disc package includes over 3 hours of film with over two-hundred trains and burners, various artist interviews, galleries and showcases, outtake footage, additional commentary by Silver and Chalfant, plus a remastered soundtrack.
Henry Chalfant makes note that this film was completed when “hip hop” was merely seen as a phenomenon and not ever expected by the general public to have any serious social, political, artistic, or cultural impact on America’s mainstream fabric. “One of the essential elements of hip hop culture was always that it was about artists taking control of their creative lives.