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London and NYC Club and Concert Listings Reconnaissance Archive - April 2003 Reconnaissance: Film - In This World The uncompromising and highly talented British director Michael Winterbottom (24 hour Party People, Wonderland) proves his worth once again with this fictitious quasi-documentary that charts the journey of two Afghan refugees through their harrowing journey at the hands of people smugglers across Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Italy and France to London. Made with digital equipment, and starring two Pashtun Afghans who were travelling outside their country for the first time, and thus 'for real', the film gives a tragic insight into the fate of the millions of refugees making similar journeys across the world. Inspired by the appalling true life fate of 58 Chinese refugees who were discovered dead on arrival in a container at the port of Dover, this ground-breaking work is of undeniable social relevance. Despite having won the Golden Bear at this year's Berlin film festival, for some reason this film is on limited release in the UK, has received limited media coverage, and is only showing at two cinemas in London (the ICA and Richmond Filmhouse). All this flies in the face of logic, as this film concerns an issue that is (wars aside) THE political and social hot potato of the moment. Everyone should see this film. Dir Michael Winterbottom, UK 2002, 89 mins, English subtitles. For more information see the ICA website or call the Richmond Film House on 020 8332 0030. Reviewer: Damian Platt Reconnaissance: Goldspot Productions present Zed Bias @ Cafe Deville (East Village, NYC) - Monday 21 April Another stormer from the Goldspot crew in association with The Fader and Triple Five Soul. Straight outta Milton Keynes, England, Dave Jones aka Maddslinky aka Zed Bias was in town to rip things up UK-stylee. He played a wicked set of broken beat, 2 step, nu jazz and all that good stuff. Much of it was back-to-back with Dinesh, also tearing it up with some lovely selections. Big up to Lyle and Dinesh (Goldspot) for representing the scene in the Big Apple. Stay tuned for the next one in a month's time. Buy Maddslinky's 'Make Your Peace' album at Amazon UK  | US Cafe Deville - 105 Third Ave at 13th St. 212 477 4500. Subway: L to Third Ave; L, N, Q, R, W, 4, 5, 6 to 14th St-Union Sq. Reviewer: Marcos Moret Reconnaissance: Style Wars DVD "If you want to know what hip hop is really all about, see a film called Style Wars." - KRS-One Style Wars is the original hip hop documentary. It centres on the NYC graffiti scene of the early eighties and throws in lots of breaking and b-boys shooting shit for good measure. Directed by Tony Sliver and produced by Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant, it was awarded the Grand Prize for Documentaries at the 1983 Sundance Film Festival. The film is finally receiving a proper release, re-mixed, in a two disc DVD from Plexifilm containing over three hours of bonus features. In addition to the luxury of catching the film on the big screen, we also caught the half-hour long "Style Wars: Revisited" - a recently-filmed return to the film's subjects, asking them about how they feel about the film and their lives twenty years on. You can't claim b-boy status, let alone profess proficiency in hip hop culture unless you've seen this vital film. See the Style Wars website for more. Reviewer: Marcos Moret Reconnaissance: Concert - Common, Talib Kweli, Gangstarr, Floetry @ Roseland (Uptown, NYC) - Sunday 6 April Massive queues, even though we had out tickets, meant that we missed Floetry, the first act in this leg of the Electric Circus tour, promoting Common's new album. Missed most of Talib Kweli's set aswell which was very disappointing - just in time to catch our favourite 'Get By' and a couple of other tracks, including a guest appearance from Hi-Tek. Gangstarr went through a repertoire of classics but a rather lacklustre Guru was unable to amp the crowd, and led to a very strange section of the show where Premier played songs for the crowd without any rapping going on - just spun a few records. When those records include a Phil Collins song and a Bel Biv Devoe song you've got to wonder what's going on. Crumbsnatchers made an unmemorable guest appearance, but saving their set was a guest appearance from Nice n Smooth who brought a good dose of life to the stage. Then finally Common entered the stage, to a psychedelic backdrop and screams from the girls in the crowd. He rolled through some chilled numbers from Electric Circus and some past favourites. At one point he started to breakdance which was cool, and he didn't disappoint with some anti-war rhetoric. At one point karaoke'd the original over the top of some hip hop classics - again kind of strange but a step up on Gang Starr's effort. A mixed night really. Reviewer: Marcos Moret Back to Reconnaisance Archive month-by-month list EMAIL UPDATES! Do you want to receive Know The Ledge update emails? Click here to sign up! ::: RELATED LINKS Back to Reconnaisance Archive month-by-month list