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TONY SILVER »
Director, Producer, Editor, Creator of the legendary "Style Wars." |
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KEVIN FITZGERALD
We sat down with award-winning filmmaker/director Kevin
Fitzgerald to discuss his first feature-length documentary film, Freestyle:
The Art of Rhyme.
A rising talent in today’s Hip Hop movement, Fitzgerald has been deeply
involved in the community for years—DJ-ing since the age of 14, co-founder
of the popular radio show "All @ One Point" on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles,
founding organizer of The Center for Hip Hop Education, co-founder of the Hip
Hop Film Festival, not to mention creator of various short films and music videos.
With Freestyle, Fitzgerald sought to “…tell a story that
reveals and bravely explores the nature of community: both its lines of fracture
and its prospects for healing.” Here’s what he had to say about the
making of the film…
Interviewer: What were your biggest challenges
with this film?
Fitzgerald: The biggest challenge no matter what film you are
making is to tell a story. My one greatest hope is that this film reflects what
Hip Hop really is. For me, it's about a revolutionary movement of people coming
together to express their love for themselves and each other.
Interviewer: Did you find strong support within the Hip Hop community
for this film?
Fitzgerald: From day one this film was a total grassroots, collaborative
effort. I have never owned a camera except for a Super-8 when I was in college.
Most of the contributors and crewmembers in the film were students who lived and
loved Hip Hop. It got made in the same way that a freestyle cipher or session
happens: with creative contributions from people mixing, complementing and working
off of each other. Without the help of the artists in the film and their friends
and sponsors, this film would have been impossible to make.
The work that we do at The Center for Hip Hop Education is all a part of this,
studying and teaching the history of Hip Hop. We use the film as a catalyst to
begin a dialogue with students when we show it to them in class. Empowering them
to understand that the principles—Knowledge, Wisdom, Understanding, Freedom,
Justice, Equality, Peace, Unity, Love, Respect, and Work—that Afrika Bambaataa
founded with Zulu Nation continue to be real and that they have been working through
Hip Hop since day one.
I think that the artists are interested in seeing images of themselves on screen
that are real and unadulterated. I don’t think we have had much of that
kind of portrayal in Hip Hop as a whole and certainly not of the underground community
which has been somewhat dissed and is only now just beginning to get the credit
it deserves.
Interviewer: You said that Hip Hop is all about people coming
together to express their love for themselves and each other. What about all the
anger we hear in Hip Hop lyrics?
Fitzgerald: The anger that people hear coming from some of the
MCs are just these individuals being honest about how they see the world around
them. The negative stuff is part of human experience. You can’t look down
on people for that. They are channeling their anger into rhyming about things
instead of acting it out on the physical level. It is a good thing. It’s
therapy.
There is also a lot of very positive, soulful and spiritual material that people
are rhyming about—which more often than not does not make it to the general
public. One of my major goals with this film and my work with The Center is to
explore these relationships and show how the beautiful side of Hip Hop looks,
for all.
The root of the art form that we call Hip Hop really goes back to Africa and the
Griots. The word “Griot” comes from the French word meaning "to
cry". The closest thing we have in traditional western culture was the town
crier, or later the bluesman. In Africa, the Griots would travel around reciting
the oral history of their village in song to all that would listen. They were
and are very respected within African society. People literally throw money at
them when they perform. They played an integral part in developing community identity
and social ties. Hip Hop really is a reawakening of this ancient spirit.
While it incorporates and creates whole new creative arts such as DJ-ing and graffiti,
the freestyle MC is still basically the traveling Bard telling a story. In Ireland,
one could not be a teacher without first being a Bard. I plan to produce another
musical documentary project that develops the whole historical and spiritual themes
in Hip Hop, especially the African connection that I was only able to touch on
briefly in this film.
A point I want to make is that freestyle Hip Hop doesn’t really need to
be framed; it just happens and it's amazing! But why is this powerful art form
so little understood? I believe it is due to its fleeting nature, and that is
what makes it so valuable. Only an honest portrayal with respect for its inherent
freedom of expression will work here. That’s what makes a freestyle so electrifying;
you are hearing the MC’s protected inner thoughts. The center of a cipher
is a beautiful place to be. You are at the point of undiluted, unedited creativity,
which at its source is really Love. It is live, in the moment and can never be
repeated. It might inspire you or it might scare you. Chances are that for many
people who see the film it will do both. My deepest hope is that it will bring
understanding and respect from outside the Hip Hop community and serve as a positive
reinforcement of us as people within.
Interviewer: How did you choose these particular artists for
inclusion in the film?
Fitzgerald: Most of the people in the film are friends and people
I have had personal relationships with. Many are those whose work I respect and
have been intimately familiar with. I hope that this intimacy makes the film real.
The film was made in a freestyle sort of way—I documented the work of friends,
they gave me introductions from one person to the next and the film grew like
that. Even the few work-in-progress test screenings that we have had have always
provided us with a chance to "re-mix" the film. After the film's Q&A
with the audience I ask them what they liked or didn't like. Then we usually have
a freestyle session with some local MCs, and I film it. Then we know how to proceed
with the next cut. So in a way, this film has been constantly developing, growing
and getting better each time we show it.
I wanted the film to be like a DJ mix tape. Mix tapes were the way that music
spread from borough to borough in NY in the earliest days of the art. DJ Hollywood
was a pivotal figure in the launching of underground mix tape culture in the 70s.
I wanted the film to feel like a visual representation of the mix tape form and
be educational at the same time.
Interviewer: Are there any unifying characteristics shared by
the performers in your film?
Fitzgerald: The thing with freestyling is that it is all about
producing work that is personal, and therefore unique. There are no classes or
categories here. It is about the freedom that every artist has to not bow to convention.
Originality is king in this community. I would have to say that a commitment to
creating original work that has the integrity of personal truth behind it is what
all of the people in the film share.
Interviewer: Where did you get the resources to start filming?
Fitzgerald: I used equipment from the university between and
during class projects. Some days I was literally using the equipment round the
clock. It was hard to get other students to help me since it was just after the
LA riots that we were doing this and most of them didn’t feel comfortable
hanging out in the neighborhood at the time. I also borrowed a camera from Ben
Caldwell, a professor at Cal Arts who started another famous open mike in Leimert
Park called iFresh. Unfortunately, Ben’s camera was stolen when some gangsters
on the street during one night's shoot jumped me. I hope I’ll be able to
replace it sometime soon.
Money-wise, I paid for stock and tape with cash I got from DJ-ing, my student
loans, and more often than not as the project went on, from my extremely supportive
family, especially my mom, Michelle. My producer Alex and best friend Ty really
went out on limbs so many times for me to make this film happen. Very good people!
Love!
Interviewer: What didn’t you get to touch on in the film
that you wanted to?
Fitzgerald: There are a lot of historical and cultural roots
of the art form that I wanted to touch on more—the African Griots, scatting,
blues, R&B DJs like Jocko Henderson and Wolfman Jack, and the growth of freestyle
and Hip Hop in other countries. There is so little out there right now about the
history of the art form; but that will change soon, I think. We need our own Hip
Hop museum, programs in universities and colleges, etc. Right now we are just
at the tip of the iceberg in terms of the broad recognition of Hop Hop as an art
form.
There are many more films I would like to make on the subject of freestyling and
Hip Hop. In fact, I see this film and the films that will follow it as works-in-progress
that I will be involved in for the rest of my life. Plus, I think I would like
to teach kids someday.
Interviewer: This was a very personal project for you. Do you
have any personal dedication to make with it?
Fitzgerald: Yes, I’ve dedicated the film to my father,
Robert. He was a pioneer in satellite, closed-circuit television and video technology.
When I look at his work I see that he brought people together across large distances
both literally and metaphorically. I feel that I am trying to do the same thing
with this film. So in many ways it is homage to him and the principles he based
his life on which I absorbed as my own.
Interviewer: What’s next for you?
Fitzgerald: To make more films and to pursue my long-standing
interest in natural medicine. I see film as being an integral healing art form
in modern society, and I would like to continue to explore and maximize the inherent
capabilities of the medium for this end. I hope that Freestyle: The Art of
Rhyme will be only the first of many documentaries and features I make with
the goal of healing through the shared experience that cinema can create. Beyond
that, there is a musical narrative film called "Tokyo DJ" that I am
making next; I’m co-directing a documentary on the Hip Hop band The Roots
that my cinematographer, Todd Hickey, currently has in pre-production; and of
course, panning and touring with the Hip Hop Film Festival.
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