FILM REVIEW: Move Ya Body (The Birth of House)

Move Ya Body: The Birth Of House is the first documentary feature by Elegance Bratton, a director known for films that explore the diversity of black and queer perspectives. Examining the origins of house music in Chicago, the film presents the genre as intrinsically tied to the city's history of racial segregation, as well as the increase in queer representation at discothèques. Clubs such as Warehouse, home of the genre's most influential DJ, Frankie Knuckles, and where the term 'house' originates, are regarded for their legendary dance nights and ability to unite black, femme, and queer Chicagoans in displays of dance and fashion. 

The film opens with a moment of trepidation, as Move Ya Body's central figure, Vince Lawrence expresses his nerves being the primary voice in a much greater story. While the interviewer insists that this isn't necessarily the case, the film dedicates much of its narrative progression to Vince's life, from touring with outlandish funk figure Captain Sky in his youth, to buying his first synthesizer as a result of a financial settlement with the perpetrator of a hate crime, and chronicling his experience with the legal founder of Trax Records, Jesse Saunders. 

Vince Lawrence's story is compelling and affecting. Through interviews and visual re-creations of pivotal moments in his youth, the film effectively captures Vince's passion for music and his desire to be a foundational figure in the creation of a new sound. His hustle is on full display, and its entertaining to see him work as a self-taught pyrotechnics technician, usher, musician, party promoter, and pseudo-label head. The film importantly includes other perspectives that hone in on the experiences of femme and queer club attendees through engaging interviews that paint a vivid picture of a thriving club scene that contrast with Vince's story, which is somewhat tangential to the clubs that brought house music to popularity.

While Move Ya Body purports to be the story of house music, much of its runtime is dedicated to the rise, fall, and ultimate destruction of disco music, culminating in the notorious 1979 Disco Demolition Night. Held at Cominsky Park in Chicago, the event centred around setting disco records—and by extension, other genres of historically black music—ablaze in riotous fashion. Though this context is important in explaining the foundation of house music's skeletal and deconstructed disco sound, the length at which disco is explored hinders the back half of the the film as it tells a frustratingly rushed, unfocused, and one-sided history of house music.

The creation of house music is framed by the establishment of the aforementioned Trax Records, to which Vince Lawrence has no legal claim due to the lack of a contract between he and Jesse Saunders. Although Trax is one of the most prominent labels to emerge from the Chicago house scene, other important historical perspectives are ignored. This includes any mention of fellow Chicago house music label, D.J International, as well as the house music-inspired dance craze known as 'jacking.' The film glances over the immense contributions of Frankie Knuckles as well as the numerous DJs and acts working independently of the label system. Most glaring, the film is hindered by a surprising lack of licensed music from the era.

Move Ya Body does an admirable job connecting the early history of Chicago house to the eventual popularization of the genre, correctly noting that in many instances house music was co-opted by white artists in arguably appropriative fashion. The documentary however does not mention the two musical genres originating from Chicago that early house would eventually inspire: late-'80s booty house and labels such as Dance Mania Records, as well as its high tempo descendent, juke. 

If viewers hope to decisively learn the figures that started the house music trend, Move Ya Body actively avoids naming names. Viewers can assume the genre is linked to an amalgam of different Chicago artists, DJs, and promoters but the limited number of interviews with musical figures presents a narrow view of the history of house music. Much of this is likely due to ongoing litigation Vince Lawrence and other figures in the house music scene are embroiled in with another of the film's interview subjects. These legal proceedings are only mentioned briefly at the end of the film, acting as a something of a bait and switch that calls into question whether the documentary presents a neutral stance in telling this particular story. 

From over-explaining the history of disco at the expense of exploring house music more thoroughly, to spotlighting a limited number of perspectives and under-representing the most well known figures in the genre, the numerous narrative threads explored in Move Ya Body: The Birth Of House fail to coalesce into a definitive whole. 

This film screened as part of the Calgary Underground Film Festival Tuesday, April 22, 2025.