Shaolin Cinema: Wu-Tang Doc

After playing at the recent Urbanworld fest, the Wu Tang documentary, Wu: The Story of the Wu-Tang Clan will air on BET tonight. A DVD will follow on November 18th. I missed it at Urbanworld but I did see an early cut which landed on my desk last year. My early impressions (which are buttressed by the trailer below) is that this film is going to keep it real doc style (if that’s not redundant.) What I mean is that the raw handicam footage seems to run scenes in their entirety, with little editing and little set up of the dialogue. So actual conversations play like actual conversations and not movie (or even documentary) conversations. I’m eager to see how (if) it plays out over a whole film.

I’m excited about this one because the Wu Tang is a legacy worth celebrating. As hip hop’s first supergroup, they helped change the record business in a very Web way, with each member allowed to release ample solo projects, which in return reflected glory to the group. They’ve also had a Behind the Music tragedy with the death of ODB. (We did a doc with ODB right after he got out of prison (called ODB On Parole) as a progenitor of our rock doc series. ODB also appeared in the excellent Rock the Bells doc.) I’m not sure how much his wit and antics will be on display in this film. But check out the trailer below: