Don't Sweat the Technique
Benson Lee's 'Planet B-Boy' puts the spotlight back on popping, spinning and flipping.
"Dance is a universal language. Anyone can do it. It's like karaoke," said Benson Lee. You don't necessarily have to be good at it. Just go for it.
Growing up outside of Philadelphia in the 1980s, Lee was one of millions of Americans swept into the breakdancing pop culture phenomenon.
"I was one of those kids who saw it and loved it," he said. "Except I didn't have a community around me, so I was sort of this closeted b-boy."
You know, the kind of b-boy who spreads out the cardboard in the living room, goes crazy and then goes to bed. That was Lee. When the fad faded away from American consciousness, he too forgot about the street dance until he watched a classic 80s movie filled with all the flips, pops and spins.
What the hell happened to breakdancing? He searched the internet and discovered that not only was b-boy culture going strong overseas, but that the "Battle of the Year" - the granddaddy of all breakdancing competitions - continually attracted dance crews from Korea to Israel every year.
Now Lee, 38, is leading a U.S. breakdancing revolution with "Planet B-Boy," a breathtaking documentary that goes inside the international b-boy dance scene.
"People are loving it," said Lee about his sophomore effort, which opened in limited theatrical release in late March. The film also won the best documentary award at the recent San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.
"It's definitely great to get kudos for all the blood sweat and years we put in this film," said Lee from New York City. In total, "Planet B-Boy" took three years to make. "But it's not as prestigious as the acknowledgement you get by the audience loving this film."
Finding His Calling
The road to "Planet B-Boy" has been long and filled with chance.
Lee, who is a second generation Korean American, did not attend a traditional film school. At New York University, he majored in liberal studies, which focused on acting, literature and music - in hindsight, all things that are relevant to filmmaking.
But urban life in New York was burning him out, so Lee moved to paradise to "relax and think about life." At the University of Hawaii, he joined the student video club where he began his own informal film school just by experimenting with camera and editing equipment. He cobbled together some short films that were screened at the Hawaii International Film Festival, and found his calling.
"It was the best time of my life."
After college, Lee moved to Paris to try to break into the European film industry. At first, it seemed like the perfect coming of age story about an artist who moves abroad for art's sake, but Lee admits he had other motivations too.
"Okay, so I met a girl!" he said with a laugh. "It sounds more noble the other way."
After six unsuccessful months (and a break-up) in Paris, Lee moved to London where he worked in the heart of the city's financial district as a sandwich maker. Every day, he watched businessmen and women breeze by as he slung lunchmeat.
"I'd never been in that kind of corporate environment before. It was really exotic for me."
He started writing his own screenplay and pitched it to a filmmaker friend, who financed his first feature film. Two years later in 1998, "Miss Monday" screened at Sundance and won a special acting award.
It's not as easy as it sounds, Lee said. For his next project, he decided to cross genres to documentary filmmaking.
"With a documentary you just have a premise. You don't have a script. There's less control and much more refreshing surprises. You rely on life being much more dramatic than fiction sometimes."
The Camera is Like a Therapist
In "Planet B-Boy," real life is in fact more compelling than imagination as we enter the lives of six international dance crews including Las Vegas' "Knucklehead Zoo," on their journey to the "Battle of the Year" competition in Germany. Along the way, Lee captures some candid moments of heartache and love.
The camera is like a therapist in a weird way, he said. It provokes people to say things to each other that they wouldn't normally say. In one scene, Katsu of the Japanese b-boy crew "Ichigeki" shifts uncomfortably after his brother said he was proud of Katsu's dance achievements. Later, Lee found out that this was the first time the brothers expressed affection aloud.
Lee and his production crew traveled through four different countries including the U.S. and Korea to film stunning b-boy dance sequences, including the "Run DMZ" scene where b-boys dressed up as soldiers dancing along the 38th parallel - sort of. The scene was filmed on an outdoor studio set up to look like the infamous border dividing North and South Korea.
"One of the biggest compliments is when a parent comes up to me and asks, 'where can my child learn this?'" said Lee, who is now working on the feature version of the b-boy documentary. "That's amazing because not so long ago, hip hop was one of the last things parents wanted their children to get into."
He thinks his film and the popular MTV dance competition "America's Best Dance Crew" could help the b-boy resurgence in America. He's a fan of the "JabbaWockeeZ," the San Diego, Calif. dance crew that won the competition March 27.
"So the next time you see a kid rolling around in the street, maybe you'll give him a little more respect."
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