Move Ya Body: The Birth of House 2025

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL PREMIERE JANUARY 2025

It was the summer of 1979 and Disco had taken over the world. For the first time, Black, gay and female artists were dominating the charts. But a backlash was brewing. On a July night in 1979, nearly 50,000 White teenagers descended on Chicago’s Comiskey Park for “Disco Demolition Night,” where they destroyed records made by mostly Black artists. Many say that the birth of house music comes from this fateful evening. Mixing cinematic recreation, archival materials, and revelatory interviews with the pioneers of house music, MOVE YA BODY: THE BIRTH OF HOUSE tells this story in a new way, offering a celebration of the power the dance floor has to liberate us all, and an appreciation of the artists that kept the beat going all night long.

The Filmmakers

Elegance Bratton, Director

Chester Algernal Gordon, Producer

Roger Ross Williams, Executive Producer

Geoff Martz, Producer

Siobhan Sinnerton , Executive Producer

Johnny Webb, Executive Producer

Production companies:

Freedom Principle, HiddenLight Productions, Impact Partners