Directed by Louis Wallecan
France/USA | 2019 | Documentary | 85 min | French w/ English subtitles
Film Source: Versatile Films
Sponsors: Patricia Fontaine | Andrea Rogers
In this exuberant documentary featured at the Tribeca Film Festival, director Louis Wallecan takes an in-depth look at an extraordinary dance artist in the making — the totally wonderful Charles "Lil' Buck" Riley, who learned the smooth dance moves of Memphis jookin on the tough neighborhood streets, parking lots and slippery floors of the Crystal Palace Roller Skating Rink. We see Lil' Buck's neighborhood up close, with its deprivations but also his competitive instinct, dedication to perfection and interest in expanding jookin's vocabulary. After he wins a scholarship to study ballet, Lil' Buck further mixes jookin with other artistic forms, ultimately merging aesthetics and cultures with a celebrated performance of Camille Saint-Saëns' haunting "The Swan” with famed cellist Yo-Yo?Ma accompanying him. It is this "portrait of the artist as a young man" that makes this film a joy to discover. ~AM