Jacob Krupnick, director and screenwriter of “Girl Walk // All Day,” has created a feature length music video for Girl Talk’s new album, “All Day.” “Girl Walk // All Day” has a runtime of 75 minutes and effectively explores the mashed up nature of Girl Talk’s sampling of popular music through interpretive street dance. For the uninitiated, Girl Talk is a modern day performance artist that combines popular music from the 1960’s through current day to produce a new sound and blurs the lines of rock, pop, hip-hop, and R&B music.
You can’t really discuss Girl Talk at all without at least mentioning the issue of copyrights in regards to music. This film would be impossible to distribute through the normal studio system based on the soundtrack alone, as it uses bands like The Beatles and Michael Jackson, just to name a few. What Krupnick and Girl Talk have created together is providing fans easily accessible content by working with technology available on the Internet.
Funding for the project was made possible because of a Kickstarter campaign, where 577 individuals raised just under $25,000 to produce the music video. The results of which are profoundly engaging, emotional, and bold. Additional funding is also helping in the production of a traveling live show that is expected to go world wide, according to the Kickstarter page.
“Girl Walk // All Day” features dancers Anne Marsen, John Doyle, and Daisuke Omiya, as the girl, the creep, and the gentleman respectively, focusing on the girl as she interacts with the city of New York and its people. She explores famous locations such as Central Park, Bloomingdales, the Staten Island Ferry, and the Brooklyn Bridge. The girl (Marsen) makes it clear that she doesn’t fit into the mold of conformity of dance, but rather follows her feet to express the sounds that she hears, which makes the audience not only be captured by her freedom, but also by wanting to emulate her footsteps.
The creep (Doyle) is just as enamored with the girl as the audience is by wearing his heart literally on his chest and following the girl as much as possible. He expresses himself through more of a grungy hip-hop/B-boy style of dance. The gentleman (Omiya) is the subject of the girl’s affection, because of his light-hearted dance and the freedom of his movements. He expresses himself through non-traditional tap dancing methods. Ultimately, all the styles of dance come together at the end, bringing the movie to a close.
While watching a movie in a theater is normally a stationary action, it’s impossible to keep sitting still for even a moment during “Girl Walk // All Day.” This often caused the audience to burst in to fits of seat dancing; even at The Alamo Drafthouse, which is known for its policies that keep audience members from disturbing each other. In this case though, dancing is welcomed and even encouraged and lead to some audience members dancing in the aisles.
The immediate reaction after the movie was over was how to see this movie again as quickly as possible. This lead to a simple search resulting in finding this wonder of film making which is easily accessible on Vimeo in chapter form. While it is available for home viewing, this movie should really be watched in a theater or group setting since part of the fun is how energized the crowd is from start to finish. If “Girl Walk // All Day” is showing in your town drop everything and purchase a ticket immediately.
The soundtrack is available for free download at illegal-art.net/allday and the movie is available via Vimeo in multiple chapters at girlwalkallday.com/watch-the-film.
This sounds amazing. I love Girl Talk and musicals and this sounds like the perfect marriage of the two. Plus, I can’t see Girl Talk live anymore. When I saw him a couple of years back, it was the first time that my husband and I were distinctly the old people in the room.