Move Ya Body: The Birth of House

Out of the underground dance clubs on the South Side of Chicago, a group of friends turn a new sound into a global movement. Vince Lawrence was an eccentric, nerdy Black child growing up in Mayor Daley’s segregated Chicago. One summer when his dad couldn’t afford to send him to summer camp, Lawrence embarked on a personal journey that would lead him to become the first person to record a house song. It was the summer of 1979 and Disco had taken over the world. For the first time, Black, gay, and female artists were dominating the charts. But a backlash was brewing. On a July night in 1979, nearly 50,000 White teenagers descended on Chicago’s Comiskey Park for “Disco Demolition Night,” where they destroyed records made by mostly Black artists. Many say that the birth of house music comes from this fateful evening. Mixing cinematic recreation, archival materials, and revelatory interviews with the pioneers of house music, Move Ya Body: The Birth of House tells this story in a new way, offering a celebration of the power the dance floor has to liberate us all, and an appreciation of the artists that kept the beat going all night long.

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Direction: Elegance Bratton

Cinematography: Lisa Rinzler

Editing: Kristan Sprague, Jeremy Stulberg

Music: James Newberry

Production: Freedom Principle, One Story Up, HiddenLight Productions, Los Angeles Media Fund, Impact Partners

Producers: Chester Algernal Gordon, Elegance Bratton

Co-producers: Mimi Tseng, Morgan Earnest, Drake Burnette, Claire Shanley

Executive producer: Roger Ross Williams, Vince Lawrence, Geoff Martz, Siobhan Sinnerton, Johnny Webb, Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Jeffrey Soros, Andrew Blau, Luke Rodgers, Rick Rosenthal, Nancy Stephens, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Nina Fialkow, David Fialkow, Bill Harnisch, Ruth Ann Harnisch, Adam Lewis, Melony Lewis, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Meadow Fund, Lauren Haber, Kelsey Koenig, Brenda Robinson, Regina K. Scully

Format: DCP

Color: Color

Production Country: USA

Production Year: 2025

Duration: 92'

Contact: WME

Elegance Bratton

2016 Walk for Me (short fiction)
2019 Pier Kids 2020 Buck (short fiction)
2022 The Inspection (fiction)
2025 Move Ya Body: The Birth of House