When I was preparing my selection of films to cover at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, All The Streets Are Silent: The Convergence of Hip Hop and Skateboarding is one that jumped off the page as a quintessential Dave film.
What added to the anticipation is the film’s trailer, released just a few days after its premiere at the festival. It just confirmed my excitement to watch. To the surprise of no one, All The Streets Are Silent: The Convergence of Hip Hop and Skateboarding is an impactful love letter to the evolution of the underground culture of hip-hop and skateboarding and one that services as an educational look at what popularized the culture.
All The Streets Are Silent: The Convergence of Hip Hop and Skateboarding follows the journey of both the hip-hop and skateboarding community as they attempt to find a foothold within society while being the known outsiders. Both the hip-hop and skateboarding communities shared the stereotype of being a group of folks who are nothing more than delinquents, and the film dives into these characterizations by juxtaposing members of each community, including Run DMC’s Darryl McDaniels, Fab 5 Freddy, and skaters Jeff Pang, Mike Carroll, Josh Kalis. This, along with interviews with Rosario Dawson and Leo Fitzpatrick, who were somewhat involved within these groups, as well as in Kids, allows for a compelling tale of their side of the story.
What works with Jeremy Elkin and Dana Brown’s choice to juxtapose these two worlds is showing how these similarities ultimately lead to both cultures intertwining, With the growing influence of hip-hop in New York and the ever-increasing skateboarding community, brands like Zoo York and Supreme were created and propelled to notoriety. Both brands continue to have a central spot in the pop culture conversation today.
At the core of the emotional weight of All the Streets Are Silent is the passion and enthusiasm of all parties involved. Every rapper, skater, artist, and actor that partook in the film showed an overwhelming force that assisted in genuinely understanding why both worlds have grown in the fashion they have.
All The Streets Are Silent: The Convergence of Hip Hop and Skateboarding is sure to open the eyes of those unfamiliar with these worlds. For fans of hip hop and skateboarding, this film is a must-see compelling dive into the culture that will surely be one of the most discussed of the festival.
