Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop (2000)

Danny Hoch, Susan Blommaert, Lynn Schlansky Hoch, Gina Brooke, Pablo Herrera ... see more  , Hector Arias , Bonz Malone

In this screen adaptation of his acclaimed one-man show, actor, writer, and performance artist Danny Hoch explores the lives of a culturally diverse group of New Yorkers, often seen through the influe... read more nce of hip-hop music. Hoch's characters include a kid in a wheelchair explaining the toll his mother's cocaine addiction has taken on him; a street vendor in the Bronx whose face-off with a cop is complicated when the policeman can't tell what race he is; an elderly Jewish woman who fears for the safety of her grandson, a social worker in an African-American community; a rap star discussing the shifting trends of hip-hop music; a Cuban man convinced that being on crutches hasn't hurt his dancing abilities; and Hoch as himself, explaining how he came to be cast on an episode of Seinfeld and why he walked off the show. One of the characters in Hoch's original show, a white kid from Iowa named Flip who wants to be a gangsta rapper, became the basis for the film Whiteboys, which Hoch starred in and wrote. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi