MOVE YA BODY – THE BIRTH OF HOUSE

Elegance Bratton | USA 2025 | 92’ | OV

In the chaos of Disco Demolition Night – an advertising stunt gone wrong during the interval of a game at Chicago’s baseball stadium Comiskey Park in 1979, during which Disco and Soul records were publicly destroyed, which in retrospect is less reminiscent of a happening than a book burning, a teenage usher named Vince Lawrence witnessed the fiery backlash against disco – a sound that defined freedom and pride. Undeterred by the hostility, Vince used his earnings to buy a synthesizer, and began making music himself with a handful of friends of his age, setting in motion a journey that would change music forever.

Venturing into the underground sanctuary of The Warehouse, where Frankie Knuckles spun revolutionary sounds, Vince teamed up with Jesse Saunders to form Z Factor, a scrappy collective of visionaries who captured the pulse of Chicago’s underground on wax. Their track “On and On” became the first recorded house music anthem, sparking a movement that transformed a local DIY culture into a global phenomenon. From those gritty Chicago streets to festival stages worldwide, Vince’s story is an electrifying testament to how a dream, born in the ashes of rejection, ignited a genre that continues to unite and liberate people across the globe.

However, this is a story not only about artistic or economic success, nor about unlikely crossovers (e.g. with very white punk) . This is also the tale of a liberation and an important starting point for the visibility of a self-determined LGBTQ+ community, garnished with staged, atmospherically dense scenes, and told in a personal and lively manner by Lawrence himself, several of his comrades-in-arms, other contemporary witnesses, and commentators representing today’s perspective, including Marshall Jefferson, Lori Branch, Lady D, “Screaming” Rachel Cain, Kevin Aviance, Lena Waithe.