A documentary by Garry Beitel. Rated PG. Plays Monday to Wednesday, July 19 to 21, at the Vancity Theatre

If you think klezmer music and hip-hop beats are mutually exclusive, you obviously haven’t met Josh Dolgin (aka Socalled), a Montreal-based musician, composer, visual artist, filmmaker, and magician. He’s not brilliant at everything, but he manages to pull all his interests together in ways that stimulate both soul and funny bone, especially for the 86-minute duration of this cleverly crafted NFB documentary.

Dubbed Socalled by a fellow rapper who was bemused by Dolgin’s weak attempt at a gangsta persona, our frizzy-haired hero really clicked when he started mixing funky grooves with old Yiddish songs and homilistic exhortations. (“These Are the Good Old Days” is his best known song.) Presented in cabaret-type revues, his songs are very effective whenever Manhattan-based clarinetist David Krakauer is on hand, as during a klezmer cruise down Ukraine’s Dnieper River. But it’s even more impressive when trombonist Fred Wesley, old-school veteran of bands led by James Brown and Maceo Parker, shows up.

In another highlight, Wesley joins Krakauer in a Socalled program at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theater (even if the audience seems more Hasidic and African Zion). Less satisfying, perhaps, are attempts to revive the careers of pianist Irving Fields, purveyor of ’50s novelty albums like Bagels and Bongos, and gay-porn director Toby Ross. The latter, apparently, had some influence on Socalled’s skewed filmmaking viewpoint, although the snippets we see of the younger man’s work—usually built around forebears who benefit from his intense admiration—lean toward the timelessly poetic, not campily amusing.

In fact, Dolgin’s compulsive, mixed-bag personality so thoroughly dominates this Movie, it’s easy to forget it was made by another filmmaker, Garry Beitel. Don’t know if he has a rap name too.