By Rudy West
Tony Silver, the director behind the legendary Hip-Hop movie
Style Wars died last month from cancer.
Silver, who directed and co-produced
Style Wars with Henry Chalfont,
died of cancer at the age of 72 at his home in Los Angeles on February
1.
Style Wars originally aired on PBS in 1983 and captured New York City's
emerging graffiti scene and the emerging culture of Hip-Hop.
The film has won several awards, including the Grand Prize for Documentaries at Sundance.
In addition to
Style Wars, Silver directed several other award winning
documentary films and movie trailers, ranging from the health care
industry, to the trailer for Oliver Stone’s
Platoon, which earned him a
Clio Award.
Silver's most recent documentary
Marshall Arisman: Facing the Audience
won the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s prize for Creative
and Artistic Achievement.
Style Wars, which showcased graffiti artists like Kase, Zephyr, Dondi,
Seen, Futura and numerous others, was re-released on a five-DVD set in
2003 and again in 2005.
The DVD release includes commentaries and interviews from both Silver and Chalfont, as well as 23-minutes of unreleased footage.