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Monday, July 16, 2007

2003 til Infinity!!!



It seems like production has gone on since forever. Ever since one fateful day, late 2003, probably around December, I walked into the office of Visual Communications (VC) in Los Angeles. Hungry, looking for some food, and someone to help me through the job search process, VC exectutive director Leslie Ito asked me if I wanted to submit to the Armed With a Camera (AWC) Fellowship. I submitted a proposal for a project about Hmong B-Boys.

On this Los Angeles "winter" afternoon, I had no idea where this film would take me, who I would meet, and least of all how difficult it is to make a documentary film. From Merced with Velocity, to Long Beach with Mpact and Villn, to Fresno with Vang, to Oklahoma with the new Soul Rivals, to Sacramento, and finally back to Fresno with Climax. It has been an epic journey for an epic film... one of fun, struggle, patience, eagerness, frustration, mistakes, joy, and real connections.

The past two months have been grunt work, filled with lots of transcriptions. Once that's done come editing. But before all that happened, I needed to complete my final interviews: a reshoot because of sound issues with Mpact and Villn in Sacramento and interviews with Flip and Goku (Charles) of Climax/Soul Control in Fresno and Kingsburg.



The shoot in Sacramento went even better than the first time and I'm hoping to be able to use both sets of interviews with just a little bit of sound restoration and filtering. This time, with the first round under their belt, they've had an opportunity already to think about a lot of the concepts and stories they they talked about this time around. I found their answers to be more concise and perhaps more articulate this time around. The only disappointment was this time was the lack of Horses/Donkeys/Livestock in the background of their interviews. Check out Steven looking like Villn: Masai Warrior in the picture!



In Fresno with Charles and Flip... I already had somewhat of an idea from speaking with Charles over the phone, of how much of an asset he would be to this film, as one of Fresno's stalwart B-Boys. Charismatic, big HEART, HUGE CHIP ON HIS SHOULDER. But more about that in a later posting... I'm hoping to write a complete posting on his interview soon. With this last interview on Sunday, July 15, 2007, I hope this will fill in the earlier histories of the previous generations of Hmong B-Boys, especially in Fresno. Also, get ready for some surprises too.

So there it is... that's it, IT'S A WRAP!!! And although this definitely doesn't exclude the possibility of having to get pickup shots, pickup interviews, reshots (hopefully not...), but it marks the beginning of the next part of this journey into really constructing, weaving and connecting all these stories that I've captured, together and creating a vision through them. Wish me luck on this new journey! Though I know I will miss the interview process and the experiences I've had in production (and I know RJ will too), I can't help but believe these are just the beginnings, to many new lasting friendships.

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posted by Master Blaster at 10:26 AM |



Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Interviewing Shoua.


Our objective on this last heavy day of shooting was Shoua’s narrative. Chris and I had our assertions coming into the interview, some ideas as to where he could be at mentally–his position as a B-Boy, an Uncle, a 1.5-generation Hmong-American, an individual. I had these notions that Shoua had been going through a kind of B-Boy withdrawal, placing him in some sort of B-Boy purgatory. Tulsa isn’t exactly a core space of Hip-Hop, and I didn’t know what the scene was like.


Shame on me for making some shortsighted assertions about this young man.


Not that Tulsa’s exploding—it’s still far removed from certain conditions that nurture Hip-Hop (i.e. access to safe spaces), but a way of life does exist. It’s been a matter of Shoua tapping into the resources and learning what he’s got to deal with. And when you don’t have resources, you up your drive, you up your motivation, passion. That’s what Chris, myself, and everyone around him has been privy too—and even if we can’t quite articulate what it is that keeps Shoua inspired, we can sure try to show everybody how’s he’s kept it together.


We interviewed Shoua at his current residence, the southern side of the Northern part of Tulsa, and through their experiences known to be the “ghetto” part of Tulsa. In the interview we learned that Shoua and his family were at considerable risk—bottom line, they were an open door away from getting shot… I’m not trying to romanticize his experience, but sh*t, I don’t know how I could survive that kind of stress.


But he does, they do.


The interview was successful; Shoua was able to get certain revelations, anecdotes—the stuff of quality documentary. Moments, thoughts, expression, and honesty on tape. The rest of the evening was spent in the company of his family, good eats, nourishing drink, and good spirits.


I know I left full.





(Shoua cutting vegetables for dinner)

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posted by eye_lid at 1:23 AM |