About: The story of a pioneering acupuncture detoxification program led by the Black Panthers and the young Lords in 1970s South Bronx.
The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read: With blight ravaging New York City in the 1970s, the Young Lords and Black Panthers fought for radical change in their communities. Through the leadership of Dr Mutulu Shakur—Tupac Shakur’s stepfather—these activists created the first acupuncture detoxification program in the United States. While the legacy of the program has long been maintained by the residents of the Bronx and Upper Manhattan, the individuals responsible for its creation have suffered from decades of state-sanctioned persecution.
World Premiere: Showtime broadcast (February 2021)
About: A docuseries exploring the rise and fall of the notorious SoundCloud rapper.
Over the course of three episodes, filmmaker Karam Gill delves into the transformation of Daniel Hernandez into the attention-seeking Tekashi 6ix9ine, a wildly successful rapper who cultivated an audience – and an over-the-top persona – via social media only to find himself convicted of felony charges related to his gang association. As noted by the series’ title, Gill frames Hernandez’s story through the lens of a comic book origin, but with the rainbow-hued performer in the position of the Joker more than of Batman – a larger-than-life personality that revels in the dark side, illustrated via segments showing the construction of an action figure version of 6ix9ine. These sequences also attempt to structure the proceedings through the various elements of Hernandez’s supervillain schtick – trauma, appearance, mission, weaponry, etc – which doesn’t always work, but keeps the proceedings colorful. Ultimately, Gill convincingly shows that Hernandez’s story is one of garnering fame, using the tools of social media to tap into an audience hungry for the latest sensation, and demonstrating a willingness to escalate his efforts to hold on to them at any cost. While 6ix9ine has a demonstrably large following, it’s a fairly specific one, leading one to wonder if a more general viewership either knows or cares enough about him or his aggressively obnoxious antics to tune in for close to three hours.
Coming to VOD tomorrow, Friday, February 19: TRUTH TO POWER
Director: Garin Hovannisian
World Premiere: Tribeca 2020 (unscreened)
About: A profile of the outspoken frontman of System of a Down, with a focus on his activism.
Filmmaker Garin Hovannisian offers a portrait of fellow Armenian-American Serj Tankian, a musician most popularly known for the band System of a Down, but who has become a surprisingly influential social activist, particularly around issues related to Armenia and the genocide perpetrated against its people by the Ottoman Empire – an event still officially denied by the modern Turkish government. The film blends a fairly standard rock biography with the more compelling, if sometimes overly laudatory, activist focus, demonstrating how Tankian pushed for official American recognition of the genocide, and, most notably how a 2015 System of a Down reunion concert in Armenia helped inspire opposition leaders to peacefully unseat the country’s authoritarian government three years later. These latter elements, however, often get somewhat lost in the doc’s more conventional behind the music thread, which will appeal most to Tankian’s existing fans and limit its potentially larger appeal.
About: Nine young people share their experiences of suicide and depression.
With suicide rates increasing among young people – and only exacerbated by the social isolation and other pressures caused by the pandemic – filmmaker Alexandra Shiva shines a spotlight on the issue by going directly to the source: Nine young people who have struggled with depression and suicidal ideation. Shiva has assembled a group of articulate and candidly vulnerable participants, and has given them a platform to address issues both universal and specific to their backgrounds with compelling results. For example, cultural backgrounds factor into the stories of a young Indian woman, a Black man, and a Latinx man, as they relate how mental health issues are often not discussed openly or are stigmatized in their communities; while trans and lesbian subjects reflect the disproportionate rates of suicide within the LGBTQ community. Structured as a series of vignettes that profiles each of the nine participants individually, the film also brings them all together intermittently via a group Zoom chat. While all of us are likely well past the point of Zoom fatigue, these moments are actually quite important, showing the commonality and community between the disparate subjects, and reminding the viewer of the additional challenges this past year has brought to us all.
