Screening later this month, as part of BAMcinemaFest here in Brooklyn, NY, the world premiere of Charlie Ahearn’s documentary on the work, life and times of photographer/”urban life” documenter, Jamel Shabazz, titled Jamel Shabazz Street Photographer.

In the infancy of hip-hop, Brooklyn-born photographer Jamel Shabazz documented the pioneers of music and style that would launch an enduring worldwide phenomenon. Charlie Ahearn, director of the seminal Wild Style, pays tribute to both Shabazz and those who defined hip-hop before it had a definition. More than just vintage shots of kids rocking Puma Suedes, Kangols, and pin-striped Jordaches in Times Square and Fort Greene Park, Shabazz’s photographs have hundreds of (often times tragic) stories behind them, and Ahearn gives voice to these images with dozens of interviews with Shabazz himself, graffiti pioneer and hip-hop historian Fred “Fab 5 Freddy” Brathwaite, legendary rapper KRS-One (both Brooklynites), and more.

This will be its fitting world premiere, so it should travel to other festivals across the country afterward, throughout the rest of the year. I’ll keep you up to date as screening sighting alerts come my way.

The BAMcinemaFest screening will take place on Sunday, Jun 26, 2011 at 3:30pm. A Q&A with director Charlie Ahearn and Jamel Shabazz himself (pictured top left decades ago) will follow.

And in conjunction with the screening, BAMcinemaFest will present an exhibition of Shabazz’s photographs, some of which appear in the documentary. That’ll happen from June 16th through the 26th.

Watch the preview trailer below: