Institute History
Description
Director Lauren Lazin's Tupac: Resurrection is an extraordinary documentary about the pivotal hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur that is narrated entirely in the words of the deceased artist himself. Through a variety of interviews, journal readings, poetry performances, private home movies, and never-before-seen concert footage, Lazin weaves an incredibly compelling and insightful "self-portrait" of a cultural icon whose career and persona continue to grow from beyond the grave.
Before his violent and controversial death, Shakur was already a cultural phenomenon. The son of former Black Panther Afeni Shakur, Tupac revolutionized rap and captured the imagination of an entire youth generation. Rarely had the public seen a rap star so handsome, charismatic, fearless, and convicted to speaking out about his cultural and political philosophies. Tupac: Resurrection follows the artist from his childhood in Baltimore through his rise to stardom in the worlds of music and cinema. It also illuminates Tupac's philosophy of "Thug Life," his reaction, to quote one of his song titles, to "The Hate U Gave" perpetuated by mainstream American society to black ghetto communities.
Lazin's documentary is intimate, revealing, entertaining, and inspiring, and it proves that the soulful, indomitable spirit of Tupac is still very much alive.