Documentary hip-hop filmmaker Byron Hurt told the story of what drove him to speak out about sexual violence against women to a packed Memorial Union Theatre Monday night.
Hurt's documentary, Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes,"" which was chosen for the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, ""examines issues of masculinity, sexism, violence and homophobia in today's hip-hop culture,"" according to Kelly Anderson, director of the Dane County Rape Crisis Center.
According to the DCRCC, which helped sponsored the event, sexual violence is still perpetrated against one-third of girls, 15 percent of boys, and one in four adult women.
Hurt expressed his concern in the ways in which people, especially women in today's society, are expressed through hip-hop music.
While Hurt said he is a hip-hop fan, he recognized the ideas portrayed in the genre can demean women.
""Learning about gender issues gave me the awareness that I needed to listen to hip-hop with a much different ear,"" Hurt said. ""I still love hip-hop. I still believe that hip-hop is a brilliant art form when in fact you hear the brilliance and the creative genius in the music.""
Through interviews with rappers and hip-hop influences such as Fat Joe, Chuck D, Jadakiss, Busta Rhymes and Russell Simmons, Hurt offers a ""loving critique"" of what is being expressed and said in mainstream hip-hop music, according to a university communications statement.
Hurt also encouraged men to speak out against sexual violence issues they see and know of.
""You are as big as the problem if you do not say something or [if you] stay silent,"" he said.
Tiffany Trzebiatowski, UW-Madison fifth-year student and chair of Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment, was pleased with the turnout and the number of males in attendance.
""[The large amount of males in attendance is] great for us and our work because it's a very female movement,"" she said.
""Everyone should see this film because it affects everyone in a different way.""
Celebrities agreed too.
According to Hurt, rapper Chuck D, who collaborated with Flavor Flav in the 80's, called the documentary the most important and the best hip-hop documentary on rap music and hip-hop culture that he has ever seen.
""Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes"" will be aired on PBS again next February.
