Block Party (2005)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Michel Gondry

Writer:

Dave Chappelle (writer)

Release Date:

3 March 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Comedy | Music

Tagline:

You're invited to the party of the decade!

Plot:

A mix of Dave Chappelle's sketch comedy and musical interludes, inspired in part by the 1973 documentary Wattstax.

Plot Keywords:

Marching Band | Block Party | Neighborhood | Kitchen Scene | Bedford Stuyvesant

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Dave Chappelle	...	Himself / Host
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Erykah Badu	...	Herself
Isaac ben Ayala	...	Isaac ben Ayala
Bilal	...	Himself (as Bilal Oliver)
Lil' Cease	...	Himself - Bed-Stuy
Cody ChesnuTT	...	Himself
Keyshia Cole	...	Herself
Common	...	Himself
Mos Def	...	Himself
Jerry 'Wonder' Duplessis	...	Himself - The Fugees (as Jerry 'Wonda' Duplessis)
The Fugees	...	Themselves
Alice Goguen	...	Herself - Ohio
James 'Kamal' Gray	...	Himself - The Roots
Fred Hampton Jr.	...	Himself (as Chairman Fred Hampton Jr.)
Lauryn Hill	...	Herself - The Fugees
Leonard 'Hub' Hubbard	...	Himself - The Roots
Darren Hymes	...	Himself - 'Mr. T.'
Wyclef Jean	...	Himself - The Fugees
Big Daddy Kane	...	Himself
Talib Kweli	...	Himself
John Legend	...	Himself
Martin Luther	...	Himself
Pharoahe Monch	...	Himself
Pras	...	Himself - The Fugees (as Prakazrel 'Pras' Michel)
Dead Prez	...	Themselves
Kool G. Rap	...	Himself
The Roots	...	Themselves
Jill Scott	...	Herself
Ahmir-Khalib Thompson	...	Himself (as Ahmir '?uestlove' Thompson)
Tariq Trotter	...	Himself - The Roots (as Tariq 'Black Thought' Trotter)
Kanye West	...	Himself
Arthur Wood	...	Himself
Cynthia Wood	...	Herself

Also Known As:

Dave Chappelle's Block Party (Canada: English title) (festival title) (International: English title) (USA) (complete title)
Untitled Dave Chappelle/Michel Gondry Project (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language.

Runtime:

103 min | Canada:100 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Canada:14A | Australia:M | Ireland:15A | Germany:o.Al. | USA:R (certificate #42383) | Argentina:13 | Singapore:NC-16

Filming Locations:

Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Bob Yari Productions

Trivia:

Concertgoers had to register on-line, then were told to meet at a secret location in the Chinatown section of Manhattan. From there, they were bussed to the concert location, which was also kept secret. The majority of the acts that would be appearing were also kept secret from the concertgoers. Admission to the concert was free.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Dave Chappelle's main reason for holding the block party in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn was because, he says, that hip-hop originated there. However, hip-hop really originated in the South Bronx and spread to the other sections of New York soon afterward.

Quotes:

Dave Chappelle: This is the concert I always wanted to see!

Movie Connections:

References "General Hospital" (1963)

Soundtrack:

Turn Off the Radio

Woodstock? no. When We Were Kings.

Some have said that Michel Gondry directed this documentary (this is not a movie) like their grandfather would have done with a mini-DV camera. Well, man, I'd like to meet your grandfather.

For those of you who don't know "When We Were Kings", it's time to watch it. Because both this documentaries are about the same thing. Of course I wouldn't say Block Party is as good, nor as powerful as when we were kings. But the purpose is the same: try to unite black people on one event, try to make them realise that even when you're black and coming from a poor neighbourhood, you can do something of your life without only blaming the white man for your condition.

Of course, at the time When We Were Kings was shot, Mobutu was Zaire's Dictator, and the movie was financed by Liberian producers, who mostly owned their money from selling diamonds coming from Sierra Leone, exchanged against AK-47's and other weapons. Therefore the omnipotent contradiction hidden behind the Black condition, and even mankind in general, but it has hurt black people much more: people trying to do good, and others getting money out of it with no rules or respect for anything or anyone.

So, for once, here in Block Party, it's something done for fun, not for money, but also for ideas, with representatives of this movement we don't see enough: Not only people AGAINST something or someone, but FOR a change, using the power that is present in this population. And Michel Gondry, who is a GREAT director, filmed this in the same way When We Were Kings was shot. Camera in hand, close-ups, rough cuts, interviews over the music, same kind of music, same kind of people. Showing the poverty, and showing there's hope. It's not a masterpiece to me, but a good documentary. And of course, if you don't like hip-hop it's hard to like it. I'm a huge fan of ALL the artist on this movie, I would have made exactly the same programmation if I had been in control!