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By Dan Leone

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IT'S HARD NOT to like Scratch, a documentary that happily deconstructs the art of hip-hop DJing and scratch music with gregariousness and loving care. Opening with a shot of the Brooklyn Bridge as Gangstarr's "DJ Premier in Deep Concentration" plays in the background, Scratch quickly breaks down into several major categories ("elements," "making beats," "digging," etc.). The movie begins with "Elements," which explores hip-hop music's foundations through interviews with Grandwizard Theodore and Afrika Bambaataa, and quickly picks up steam with "Rockit" (a revealing and amusing look at how Grandmixer D.st's scratching on Herbie Hancock's 1983 funk classic influenced modern-day DJs) and the self-explanatory "Turntablism." Director Doug Pray doles out countless shots of San Francisco landmarks like Amoeba Music and Storyville, but his heavy-handed focus on local DJs and events – more than half of the film's live shots were taken here – isn't too far off the mark, considering the Bay Area's international reputation as the home of turntablism. With a few exceptions (Philadelphia's Cash Money being the most glaring omission), Scratch features most of the big names, including QBert, DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, the X-ecutioners, and DJ Premier. There are some great scenes sprinkled throughout, from DJ Shadow waxing philosophically amid mountains of vinyl deposited underneath a Sacramento record store to Mixmaster Mike grimacing maniacally into the camera. Maintaining an assured, professorial tone overall, the film doesn't uncover too many sundry controversies, a last-minute meditation on the late-'90s "turntablism" fad being a noteworthy exception. At times Pray reveals himself as a neophyte, as during inexplicable tangents like a DJ Krush concert at the Justice League (it's hastily explained that Krush represents how big hip-hop is in Japan). His 1996 film Hype! was a much more savvy look at the Seattle rock scene that spawned Nirvana, achieving an insider's perspective that never quite emerges here. Nevertheless, Scratch is proof that the filmmakers did their homework, coming up with a good primer on a vital subculture in the process.

Scratch opens Fri/8 at the Lumiere Theatre, S.F., and Shattuck Cinemas, Berk. See Movie Clock for show times. (Mosi Reeves)