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‘Move Ya Body: The Birth of House’ Review: Celebratory Doc About a Genre’s Origins Plays Like a Party
Director Elegance Bratton juxtaposes many elements, from interviews to reenactments, to inventively tell the origin story of a musical movement.
A history reconstructed by director Elegance Bratton(“The Inspection”) through the memories of the trailblazers who birthed it at underground clubs in racially segregated and violent Chicago, this is the story of how Black, brown and queer kids came up with a unique rhythm that people still dance to today. The first few minutes of “Move Ya Body: The Birth of House” dynamically set the stage for this revolution: Voiceover describes music whose beat “can be heard blocks away,” while the images show Chicago’s denizens rioting against the police and dancing all night. “Move Ya Body” shows how white DJs became superstars in the genre, while the Black pioneers who came up with the synthesizer sound and broke the mold rarely got the appreciation they deserved.
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