Why the great discrepancy? Not being Jamaican, it would be difficult to say with any authority, but I suspect we can look at what happened here in America for clues.

There is a certain demographic of Jamaican youth who idolize movies like “Scarface” or “Goodfellas”, in much the same way that American hip-hop culture rallied around those films in the 90’s. At one point a typical hip-hop video show would have music by A Tribe Called Quest, Souls of Mischief, The Geto Boys, N.W.A. and Common; this is a pretty egalitarian group of artists. Sometime in the early 2000s most of the videos looked the same with artists that sounded alike. One style dominating any artistic movement masks the beauty of the variety that said art has to offer, and thus one message dominates the mediums that influence generations to come.

In America, the movies greatly influenced the music. In Jamaica, the movies influenced the music. A decade and a half ago, dancehall music was much more eclectic than the steady stream of violent war chants that exist today, so it’s no wonder that the filmmakers who were cultivated in this environment of negativity are also turning out gangster tales. Some of the most popular films out of Jamaica are dominated by violence (Dancehall Queen, Third World Cop, Shottas, The Harder They Come), and of course once it becomes popular it has become commoditized as well.

It is likely true that violence in Jamaican films is also a reflection of the environment: poverty is still fairly widespread, and there are large gaps between the haves and the have-nots. Circumstances such as these can often influence graphic stories and images in popular media, regardless of the culture.

While Daoud and I recognize that sometimes art is about reflecting reality as it is, we also strongly believe that art can also just as easily project the reality you want to cultivate. And “…The Harder They Fall” does just that. There is so much beauty, humility and authenticity to be found in Jamaica, and the stock of films and videos out at the moment representing the island simply do not do it justice.

There is a brand new movement fomenting in Jamaican society, driven by people committed to changing the island’s image through media and politics. Authorities are putting pressure on musicians to clean up their act or face legal consequences (Vybz Kartel), and young people have been getting more involved in a variety of arts and other creative endeavors that are helping to foster this more positive image. As one of young actors, Gabio Campbell, explains:

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. It is the final week of our Kickstarter campaign, and we are so close. Please do what you can to help us make “…The Harder They Fall” a reality. We really believe this film can play a huge role in helping to bring about the changes Jamaicans themselves are looking for.

Peace
Dahkil Hausif

We were invited to speak at the 5^th annual “Visions For Tomorrow Workshop”, organized by Zora Hardamon (What About The Children, Inc.).  We met in a courtroom at Cadman Plaza in downtown Brooklyn and spoke on a panel with four other accomplished individuals at different stages in their careers, to a room of about 60 middle and high school students and their parents.

Our moderator, Jeanine Gordon, was smart and impressive, and asked great questions about all of our journeys.  Elder-statesman Michael T. Holmes, especially, reflected on his broad life experiences, and shared insight that caused me to re-evaluate where I want to go in my own life! But by far it was the younger men on the panel—Roland Cody, Jr. and Chef Kwame Onwuachi—who inspired us the most that day, right on the spot.

Like I said before, inspiration comes from so many different sources, and from so many different walks of life.  First, Roland shared his journey of being (in his own words) an “uninspired” drifter who took a chance by joining a program that landed an internship at JPMorgan Chase, which in turn led to him now attending our alma mater (Syracuse University).  Then Chef Kwame got up and told his story which, coincidentally (I implore you to look up the meaning of that word!) included being sent to Nigeria as a child to stay with his grandparents and get straightened out —very similar to the plotline of “…The Harder They Fall”!  By the time both Roland and Kwame were done, Daoud and I had both been hit with the inspiration for how to share their stories with the wider public.

In the end, Michael Holmes was so moved by our work that he pledged a large donation to our Kickstarter campaign right then and there.  By day’s end, Roland and I connected about his experience at Syracuse, and I had the pleasure to attend Chef Kwame’s food tasting this past Friday (believe me, that brother is destined for fame!)

The sweet irony of it all came when Zora and her crew thanked us for coming to inspire these youth, but it was Daoud and I who gave thanks for having the opportunity to be around such inspirational people!

Please, follow these inspiring minds!

Chef Kwame – www.chefkwame.com – @chefkwame (twitter)

Michael Holmes – www.terex.com

Peace

Dahkil Hausif

Sunshowah Films

Wow. Just one week into our Kickstarter campaign and we’re almost halfway to our goal.  Daoud and I are truly humbled.

In all honesty, this whole process can be a bit exhausting.  About a year ago Daoud and I sat down to start writing this film, and in the time since we’ve been through a re-write, storyboarding, location scouting, casting and have started to put together our production team. And, on top of that, we spent a good three months preparing for the Kickstarter campaign http://kck.st/sCw92g.  I’ve learned more about social media during this time than I ever thought I would: and this for a film with a theme about the dangers of spending too much time plugged in!  Then again, there are some aspects to social media that are so worthwhile and are helping to connect people in very positive ways, and Kickstarter is definitely one of them.

The hardest part of the Kickstarter project is accepting that our efforts are all or nothing:  If we don’t reach our goal, we can’t collect any of the money that has been pledged.  Then it’s back to the drawing board.  But that is also why we’ve always focused on how we need to hustle and plan to be successful, and not have the mentality of “ trying to be successful”.  As a great Jedi master once said, “Do or do not.  There is no try”.

So, with that, let me reiterate how humbled we are by your support thus far, it’s been absolutely amazing.   Kickstarter itself has even given us some recognition (we are featured on their “Discover” page: http://tinyurl.com/43zuhpu), and our story has led to a possible writing opportunity for another project.  Our team has also been working to think outside the box daily to keep our content fresh and new.  And we are proud of our self-conceived Instagram campaign, that has our protagonist Jabari taking photos and revealing his backstory, which has been a really cool experiment.  Even the ESPN podcast I did earlier this week about being the voice of their “30 for 30” series was timely, as they graciously allowed me to speak about the film http://bit.ly/uaqDp7.

Week one, by our standards, has been a rousing success.  But there’s still more to do, and we are very very hungry!  Our Kickstarter goal may be reached at the end of this month, but there remains a lot of work ahead and our drive will not rest until we see “…The Harder They Fall” projected on large screens nationwide.  Then everyone can sit back, watch with a sense of pride and say “Yeah…I am a part of this.”

Peace

Dahkil Hausif
Sunshowah Films

Our Inspiration

Like all of our stories, “…The Harder They Fall” was inspired by our life experience, but is not necessarily about our life.

What do I mean by this?

A few months ago I had a long discussion with our cinematographer, Ramulas Burgess, about the trap many filmmakers fall into with their first films. Many make their first project autobiographical, and it seems as though everything in their life up to that point was about getting their story told. Then their following films fall short because they seem to lack passion or drive. The difference with us is that Daoud and I create stories around things we have witnessed or observed directly, but rarely are they autobiographical.

Our first short, “rev’ o. lu, ‘shun”, was inspired by an incident Daoud had while standing in line at a Chinese take-out spot in Bedstuy. An unruly customer walked up to the door’s entrance and, while placing his order, began to shout and curse at the workers behind the counter. Daoud was inspired by the thought of what kind of energy goes into food preparation when the people who work in the kitchen are exposed to such a hostile environment (think about “Like Water For Chocolate”).

Whenever we do screenings for “Eye Jammy”, the question that always arises is which one of us had been punched in the eye by an ex-girlfriend. This story, I’ll admit, is perhaps the closest to being autobiographical. Many years ago, some kids we used to mentor started to wrestle, at first for fun, but things soon got out of hand and became pretty hard-core. As tempers flared, a smaller kid picked up a discarded ironing board to hit his much bigger opponent and, as we tried to break it up, Daoud stepped in and got hit in the eye which, of course, led many to assume he had been in a fight—just like the character in “Eye Jammy”.

Our last short, “Shades of Brooklyn” (which ran on HBO for two years), drew its inspiration from all around. The story Temporary Insanity was drawn from a conversation that Daoud’s father, David Powell, overheard between two young men on a public bus. Karma was actually a story Daoud and producer Rahman Bugg heard from an actor while we were pitching him. And The Longest Walk was drawn from the experiences women have relayed to me about walking down Nostrand Avenue in Bedstuy and Crown Heights. Clearly, this project was shaped by a pretty eclectic mix of stories!

In the summer of 2010 our friend Zebi Williams invited us to her hometown of Settlement, in the St. Andrews parish of Jamaica. Settlement is in the Blue Mountains, about an hour or so outside of Kingston. Years ago she had started a free day camp for marginalized kids in the community, and asked her friends from Brooklyn to come and help teach. Daoud and I were asked to lead a group of 14 to 16 year old boys as counselors, and help train them in the qualities it takes to be responsible men and effective leaders in their community. We decided to teach them about the process of making a film, and the boys asked us to help them make a PSA. After a quick session they picked up some basic camera skills, and in a single day mapped out the entire production of the project: writing, staging, camera direction, and more. Even more impressive, when it came time for the kids to perform, their natural talent and comfort performing on camera was amazing. Daoud, who works with afterschool programs in Brooklyn and Manhattan, had never before seen kids who were so quick to pick up on the fundamentals of the creative process.

That was our inspiration for “…The Harder They Fall”, and we began to craft our idea that very afternoon. Our first challenge, we recognized, was the fact that just two weeks of volunteer work in rural Jamaica certainly didn’t make us experts to tell a Jamaican story, no matter how amazing and positive our experience there was. But this dilemma also, ultimately, led us to the answer: to tell the story through the eyes of someone going through it for the very first time, just like we were.

Make no mistake, Daoud and I are filmmakers because we want to not just make a statement but also to make a difference. We recognized a long time ago that the youth of our nation learn more through entertainment than anything else. So years ago we posed the question: how do we entertain and teach, without being preachy and ham-fisted? The key lies in being relational: setting up experiences and perspectives that are universal, but also adding in our own understanding of what sets the story apart. In “rev’ o. lu, shun” there was no hero or villain, each character had shades of both. In “Eye Jammy” we tried to shed light on what makes our community come together, but what can also still tear it apart. “Shades of Brooklyn” gave us the opportunity to tell multi-generational stories, to comment on how we sometimes abdicate responsibility to our community and examine how the seemingly harmless things we do can still carry a lot of weight.

“…The Harder They Fall” will give us the opportunity to understand today’s youth through the eyes of a troubled young man who, despite having access to all the material things he wants, has to travel thousands of miles away and take a journey up a mountain to get what he truly needs. Our own journey to the Blue Mountains has been a transformative experience, and we look forward to soon spreading the magic of this story to audiences everywhere.