Blurred Memories – Then & There – Here & Now (Rocco & His Brothers)

“BLURRED MEMORIES – Then & There – Here & Now” is a new film project by ROCCO & HIS BROTHERS. In the 20-minute film, he narrates, using excerpts from the film STYLE WARS (1983) as well as footage from the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s, how the dynamics of the Big Apple have changed over the decades. New York continues to attract graffiti writers like a magnet, even long after the golden era of the 1980s, drawing many to depots and yards where pioneers sprayed their panels and whole cars back in the day. Some of this is documented in the film by Henry Chalfant and Tony Silver.

Rocco also saw STYLE WARS at a very early age, a film that still evokes an emotional and perhaps nostalgic enthusiasm for graffiti in the Berlin writer today, particularly for the birthplace of classic subway graffiti writing. Thus, “BLURRED MEMORIES – Then & There – Here & Now” can also be viewed as a tribute to a long-gone era that was charged with an energy that can still be found worldwide today. The film also tells how the New York authorities reacted to graffiti back then and how the mainstream today builds its headlines on the ever-vibrant subculture.