SCRATCH: A TURNTABLISM DOCUMENTARY PART 5 OF 5

To that end, Palm Pictures' excellent DVD is like dense-pack of information, offering the film and first-rate extras, on two discs. The first delivers the film proper, with chapters divided according to the film's own segments (The Scratch, Elements, Wild Style, Rockit, Jamming, Turntablism, Battling, DJs with MCs, Digging, Making Beats, Thud Rumble, Full Circle), as well as perceptive and entertaining commentary by Pray and producer Brad Blondheim. "It's weird with documentaries," observes Pray, early on, "that at the end, they all seem like they make sense, but in the beginning, their scenes are all over the place."

This one makes a lot of sense, in various ways -- you can use it differently, according to what you want. The second disc contains instruction by DJ Z-Trip ("How to Rock a Party") and DJ Qbert, a scratch notation demo, and selections from the documentary Battle Sounds, directed by John Carluccio (the very fellow who came up with a scratch notation system).

Even as it pays earnest homage to turntablists and beat jugglers, old schoolers and current innovators, Scratch is great fun, full of the kind of energy it's documenting. The film represents as well the sense of community that continues to power the movement, and makes it available to everyone, in persuasive digest form. The film doesn't include everyone, and it doesn't pretend to tell the whole story; it tells many stories and makes many links. As Pray says on the commentary track, "We've taken some shit about not having some great DJs in the film, but the whole thing is that what we try to do while we're editing, is try to have regard for what works together."

by Cynthia Fuchs