Upcoming Documentary About House Pioneer Ron Hardy Has A Crowdfunding Campaign

Chicago house music pioneering DJ and remixer Ron Hardy is getting a new documentary made about his life. Director Vito Nicholas has set up a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for I Was There: The Rise of House Music in Chicago. Hardy inspired a new generation of artists with his intense style of playing music that was sped up and many times played backwards on his turntables at the Music Box nightclub during the ’80s. He made sure that disco didn’t die and nurtured its successor, called house, by adding new songs to Chicago’s dancefloors and using rhythm and sound effects as a weapon against the propaganda of Disco Demolition Night.

Frankie Knuckles pioneered the house sound with more professionalism and politeness at the Power Plant and Warehouse Clubs, but Hardy was an avant-garde underground hero with no restrictions on what he did in the DJ Booth. Hardy’s live remixes gave inspiration to legends like Jesse Saunders, Steve “Silk” Hurley, Farley Jackmaster Funk, and more. Unfortunately, Hardy died young, at the age of 33 in 1991, as a victim of the A.I.D.S. epidemic, and he never became as known as other artists from the scene. Nicholas has interviewed house legend Robert Owens and others to uncover Hardy’s legend and reveal the true story of house music. The crowdfunding campaign is scheduled to end in October.