Move Ya Body: The Birth of House

The untold origin story of house music, tracing its roots to Chicago in the aftermath of 1979’s Disco Demolition Night. As disco records were publicly destroyed, a new sound was quietly being born in Black, queer, and working-class communities on the city’s South Side. The film follows the key innovators who turned rejection into creation, using drum machines, synthesizers, and raw ingenuity to craft a revolutionary sound that pulsed through underground clubs and changed dance music forever.

Through archival footage, interviews, and reenactments, the film captures house music as a radical act of joy, resistance, and self-expression. It shows how it built sanctuaries for marginalized communities and confronts the genre’s later erasure and commercialization. Fast, emotional, and unapologetic, this is the story of how a new beat, born from struggle, became a global phenomenon.