Queer as Punk review – joyous portrait of Malaysian LGBTQ+ rebels making noise

Yihwen Chen’s warm and galvanising documentary follows queer punk band Shh…Diam! as they battle discrimination with humour and raw energy For queer Malaysian punk band Shh … Diam!, every live gig is a small miracle. Their name translates as “Shut up!”, a powerful and defiant cry in a country rife with homophobia. Favouring distorted riffs, heavy drums and swaggering lyrics, the band’s powerful sound seeks to drown out the noise of prejudice and discrimination. Their courage, as well as their simple joie de vivre, thrum through Yihwen Chen’s documentary portrait. Shot over six years, the film charts the monumental changes undergone by the band members and their home nation. Always ready with a joke, lead singer and guitarist Faris is a proud trans man. Rejected by his own family, the charismatic performer finds a safe haven with his bandmates Yon and Yoyo, and their audience. Their songs turn up the volume on issues faced by the queer community, and also bristle with an anarchic sense o...

It’s a rap: what are the greatest hip-hop movies?

The genre, which turns 50 this month, has led to surprisingly few movies but the best include a black-and-white comedy and a starry documentary

Fifty years ago, on 11 August 1973, a young woman named Cindy Campbell hosted a small party in the Bronx. Her brother DJ Kool Herc was spinning some records, using two turntables to loop a breakbeat. That moment is said to have given birth to hip-hop. No one made a movie about it.

The landscape for hip-hop movies is starved, all things considered. We’re talking about a musical genre, currently celebrating its golden anniversary, where the aspirational stories of overcoming struggle and systemic oppression, building community and, eventually, dominating pop culture, are rarely told on the big screen.

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