Gray Area Grand Theater: Taking Back the Groove

Join us for the San Francisco Premiere of Taking Back The Groove, a documentary biopic on Disco Legend Richie Weeks, and how he clawed back the rights to his music and restored his legacy in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Join us on June 8th for a special screening and the San Francisco premiere of Taking Back the Groove (2023), a documentary chronicling the life and legal battles of disco legend Richie Weeks. Afterwards, Gray Area will host a panel discussion with film producer Roddy Lindsay in dialogue with a host of artists and experts that traces the past and future of music and technology, creative agency and copyright, and remix and sample culture.

Directed by Celia Aniskovich, Taking Back the Groove tells the story of Bronx-born, disco superstar Richie Weeks, whose hit song Rock Your World made it to No. 1 on the dance charts in the 80s. Like many Black artists throughout American recording history, his talent was strip-mined to enrich white-owned record labels. Weeks and his manager Jerome Derradji narrate the story of how they clawed back the rights to Weeks’ music and the ongoing fight to restore his legacy and share his music. Exploring the intersection of dance music, copyright law, and social justice, the film opens new avenues of conversation in our contemporary moment in which AI and other algorithmic tools have drastically impacted music and other creative industries.