Rise: The Story Of Rave Outlaw Disco Donnie
MVD 2004
Any time a social "scene" rises up around music, it's ultimately destined to fail. The main reason for this is because, to a lot of folks, being seen will always be more important than the music itself. Rise: The Story Of Rave Outlaw Disco Donnie documents the promoter's life, as well as the magical world he creates for throngs of ravers. When all is said and done, it also illustrates that when a "scene" crashes, it's the people who put on the show that fall hardest.
The main feature of Rise: The Story Of Rave Outlaw Disco Donnie paints a fairly standard picture of any "scene." It shows the rave community as a diverse group of people and not just solely a bunch of drug taking, pacifier sucking freaks--though that element is represented, as well. Still, most of these folks are normal, family-oriented people just seeking the fun and escape that rave and its music provides them. It all rolls (no pun intended) along so smoothly, almost every declaration of love, positivity, and loyalty to the tenents of this particular "scene" seem more sincere than with practically any other such community.
Unfortunately, things come crashing back to earth on the addendum to Rise: The Story Of Rave Outlaw Disco Donnie. It catches up with Disco Donnie quite awhile after the feature had been finished. By this point, Donnie had been screwed by "the man"--officials having used crack house legislation to discourage him from throwing his raves. He was still promoting shows but the spectacle had been scaled back considerably, in large part because many of those people who swore up and down they lived for the shows had "moved on to something else."
While ravers will definitely love Rise: The Story Of Rave Outlaw Disco Donnie because of the fairly positive picture the feature creates of their community, this is a compelling view for those outside that world, as well. There are many lessons to be learned, here--from not having preconceived notions about people, to understanding the inherent weaknesses of "scene." An extremely well made film.
Score this DVD directly from MVD
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