To mark the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, the Fribourg International Film Festival (FIFF), which is scheduled to hold between March 15 and 24 2024, will dedicate its Genre Cinema section to this cultural phenomenon “which has transformed music, cinema, art, and dance around the globe.”
In a statement made available to TCN, the organisers say as well as the 15 or so films in the Genre Cinema line-up, the 38th edition of FIFF will also feature concerts, conferences, exhibitions, and workshops that tell the story of this urban culture which began life as an outlet for protest and self-expression in the Black and Latino ghettos of the South Bronx, New York.
“For the fourth year running, the world’s largest selection committee – the public – can vote for the classic films they want to see on the Genre Cinema programme: fiff.ch/vote.
“Following the roaring success of the 37th edition in March 2023, with attendance figures in excess of 54,000, 46,000 of which were for screenings alone, FIFF 2024 has chosen to devote one of the most important parts of its programme – the Genre Cinema section – to the cultural powerhouse of hip-hop. The line-up will feature around 15 films: some, like Shaft (1971, winner of the Oscar for Best Original Song) and Brian De Palma’s Scarface, inspired the movement; others tap into foundational elements of the hip-hop universe, such as rap, graffiti art and breakdancing.
“Five of these 15 films will be chosen by the public from a curated catalogue of 50 iconic movies; the list is published in the two main regional newspapers, La Liberté and Freiburger Nachrichten, and on fiff.ch/vote.
“Hip-hop’s 50th birthday celebrations at FIFF will also include concerts, evening entertainment, conferences, an exhibition and cultural outreach workshops. The details of these festivities and the 38th edition’s full programme will be released at the end of February 2024.
“The FIFF’s communications agency, by the way studio, will provide the posters, animated visuals and surprise performances for this cross-generational event.”
The official poster of the festival, which was unveiled earlier in the week, captures the creative and expressive power of hip-hop. As the agency director Victor Ramalho explains, “We want the design of FIFF 2024’s visual universe to reflect the soul of the hip-hop movement: it’s transgressive, edgy and vibrant.”
From rap, DJing and beatboxing to breakdancing and graffiti, hip-hop has had a phenomenal influence on culture throughout the world, an opinion that FIFF Artistic Director Thierry Jobin unequivocally shares: “There are few artistic movements that have managed, in the space of a half-century, to transform the way we dance, draw, paint, and even how we speak and the vocabulary we use.
Today, its biggest stars are part of the mainstream, but hip-hop, in all its forms, has served and continues to serve as a platform for successive generations to express their creativity and call out exclusion, injustice and inequality. This global reach also extends to Fribourg, which boasts a particularly thriving hip-hop scene.
The energy and inventiveness of hip-hop has also influenced the language of cinema, its style, rhythm and dialogue. The organisers stated that from 15th to 24th March 2024, the 38th edition of FIFF will be an opportunity for visitors of all ages to discover and celebrate this high-energy and richly diverse culture in all its glory.
The Festival organisers also say they are calling on members of the public to send in their ideas and projects that will have Fribourg popping to the hip-hop beat next March. Submissions should reach FIFF by late autumn 2023.
