Planet B-Boy

In Person: Director Benson Lee

Planet B-Boy is an explosive globetrotting documentary highlighting the shared love and sacrifice of competitive breakdancers as they battle to become the world’s greatest. Award-winning filmmaker Benson Lee travels to Japan, Korea, France and Germany to capture some of the most amazing footage of breakdancers, or “b-boys,” ever caught on film—the “human jump rope” and the “breakdancing grandma” are just two of the film’s many jaw-dropping moments.

Balancing out the frenetic performance action, Lee draws on the break­dancers’ relationships with their families, and paints a more nuanced portrait of the pressures and risks these b-boys must accept if they want to become the best. In France, we meet Lil’ Kev, a pint-sized impish white kid who’s more willing to do head spins on the Champs-Élysées than to ap­pease his mother’s wishes for him to become a fireman. In Japan, we listen to Shin admitting that his commitment to dancing entails ignoring work and maybe even his baby. And in Korea we find B-Boy Joe, who expresses his love for his father through dance because he cannot articulate it through words.

After the whirlwind tour of b-boy sessions and personal vignettes, Lee finally takes us to Germany, where a crowd of 10,000 comes out to crown the best b-boy team in the world. The tension builds as months of practice come down to one battle. Who finally walks home with the championship? Come to Planet B-Boy to find out.