Dave Chappelle's Block Party

A documentary set on a street in Brooklyn. Dave Chappelle wants to put on a concert. It will be free and it will be in a neighbourhood. The place is Bedford-Stuyvesant. An empty lot in front of an abandoned building. The date is September 2004. From there the documentary follows the preparation. Chappelle goes to his own town in Ohio. He walks around Dayton handing out tickets. To a supermarket cashier. To a farmer. To a woman working at a motel. He invites a college marching band. He brings them to New York by bus. Nobody quite knows what this is. Who will be on stage opens by degrees. Kanye West, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common, Jill Scott, Dead Prez and The Roots. There is a surprise as well. The Fugees appear together for the first time in years. The narrative holds that back to the last moment. It rains on the day. From there the documentary shows two things at once: the stage and behind it. Chappelle walks the neighbourhood. He goes into shops, talks to people, and makes jokes. He talks to the building's owner. The man has kept a studio there for years. What the narrative is interested in is not a concert but an invitation: its idea is two communities who do not know each other being in the same place; white small-town people from Ohio, and Brooklyn. Michel Gondry keeps the camera among the people. Even the stage footage is from inside the crowd. The music is live and unbroken. The documentary takes no political position but the songs do. Michel Gondry directed. Who it is for: hip hop and soul listeners and anyone who likes documentaries about a community. Who it is not for: anyone looking for structure; the documentary is loose and the crossings between stage and street are scattered.