DC4Reel

Bring the Beat

CHRIS MCDONALD
USA, 2023
60 minutes, Color

Bring the Beat is a captivating documentary that celebrates the global reach of D.C.'s homegrown go-go. Witness electrifying performances by go-go icon Gregory "Sugar Bear" Elliott, Wiley Brown, Elijah Jamal Balbed's The JoGo Project, Malik Dope, Sweet Cherie, Deborah Bond, and the Philippe Lemm Group, a Dutch ensemble playing their own go-go inspired music. Learn about go-go's rich cultural roots through interviews with Charles C. Stephenson, Jr., former chair of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and Natalie Hopkinson, Associate Professor of Media, Democracy, and Society at American University. Bring the Beat is produced by the Forum for Cultural Engagement as part of the Transatlantic Music Project, an initiative of the United States Embassy in The Hague.—Various sources