DOCUMENTARY / BANKRUPT DETROIT: THE MOTOR CITY AND THE INNER CITY GANGS OF 1970`S & 1980`S

DOCUMENTARY / BANKRUPT DETROIT: THE MOTOR CITY AND THE INNER CITY GANGS OF 1970`S & 1980`S

IT USED TO BE HOME OF
THE U.S AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY.

THE BIRTHPLACE OF MOWTOWN
THAT BOASTED A STABLE
BLACK MIDDLE CLASS POPULATION.

NOW THE JOBS HAVE GONE,
60,000 BUILDINGS LIE EMPTY.

AND BANKRUPTCY IS NOW
THE ONLY OPTION.

THIS FILM LOOKS AT THE KEY MOMENTS,THE
PEOPLE AND THE DRUGS
THAT PLAYED A PART IN THIS
CITY`S RISE AND FALL

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The fall of Detroit is many ways the story of modern America. It was the place where you could see at first hand, America`s industrial might - especially in the realms the car industry. Employing many thousands directly, and thousands more indirectly... the city`s fortune was tied directly to it`s car manufacturing plants. But when the work went overseas..and the jobs was largely replaced by drugs things.. start to go downhill.

This film charts the sorry tale of Detroit, it`s highs and lows, the music, the people, the gangs, the undercover cops, lawyers, the assassins for hire, the politics, the middle class who left the city and what came to take it`s place. You will see many photographs and hear the stories of young men who were in their prime in the 1970s and 1980`s who never lived past their 20s... and by the 1990`s came around, Detroit bore little resemblance to the hustle and bustle of the 1960`s..... few who are left from time tell their stories how they survived the streets.

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DOCUMENTARY / DEAD FAMOUS - THE DARKSIDE OF 1970s & 1980s AUSTRAILA

DOCUMENTARY / DEAD FAMOUS - THE DARKSIDE OF 1970s & 1980s AUSTRAILA

THE LINE BETWEEN
GANGSTERS AND POLICE BECAME SO
BLURRED THAT IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO
KNOW WHO YOU COULD TRUST

A FILM THAT TAKES YOU
THROUGH THE DECADES, THE UNSOLVED
MURDERS, STRANGE DISAPPEARANCES,
BENT COPPERS AND HARD BASTARDS

The view that most people have of Australia is the sunny beaches, love of beers, the great expanses, the hot climate and its world - famous landmarks...and yet behind this is a long running culture of gangs and bent coppers. All of this centres around the drugs trade that became so lucrative that the coppers began doing more than taking a cut. If the 1970`s were bad then 1980`s took it to another level entirely...when usage of smack grew it made people in the trade of trafficking and selling it get more and more greedy, more aggressive and more ruthless.

In Melbourne, the life of a gangster resembled Miami vice rather than any Aussie TV cop show you`ve ever seen. Not only were the gangsters taking out each other, but coppers were also putting OTHER coppers in the firing line. Unsurprisingly not many people who were the major players have lived to tell the tale.

There had been a code of sorts up until then, business wasn`t done in the public eye, you kept a low profile, you never involved women or children and avoided bringing heat to your operation by trying to take out the police...by the mid 80`s that had all gone. The new generation were not bound by those rules. When a cop killed a a small time dealer in dodgy circumstances where he was lured to a meeting by another criminal in 1981, his girlfriend - a rather glamourous looking prostitute took to the TV, detailing the close relationship between drug traffickers and coppers - gaining a job writing articles for magazines, and having a 60 minutes episode dedicated to her - it exposed to the Australian public for the first time just what was going on.

She was murdered. No one was ever convicted of her murder. That happened a lot, as you will see.

That (senior) cop (who also took out a contract on another who was getting too close to his criminal friends) went to jail on two separate occasions later on. Not for killing anyone though....

In fact, some of the few gangsters who have survived the time have teamed up with him, and now do pub tours where they reminisce on the "bad old days"

This film takes a sober look at the time, without resorting to glorifying - which in a lot of made - for -TV documentaries around this subject have a habit of doing. Features Mark "Chopper" Reid with his inside knowledge of who was doing what to whom, plus other major characters on both side of the blue line.

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DOCUMENTARY / WHATEVER HAPPENED TO HIP HOP (2009)

DOCUMENTARY / WHATEVER HAPPENED TO HIP HOP (2009)

HIP HOP
IS NO LONGER
THE AGENT
FOR SOCIAL
CHANGE AND HARMONY

WHAT HAPPENED?

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WAY,WAY BACK IN THE DAY...HIP HOP REFLECTED THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THE MUSIC, CREATED THE STREET ART, SHAPED THE LANGUAGE, INVENTED THE DANCE MOVES AND THE EVER MOVING STYLE OF THE STREET. FROM THE EARLY DAYS BACK IN THE LATE 70`S TO THE LATE 90`S, HIP HOP WAS MANY THINGS TO MANY PEOPLE....NOW IT`S JUST STUCK IN THE SAME MODE.

It`s been this way for a long while, but it took awhile for people to pick up on it. The messages within rap began to wither down to one - the party thug. There was always a space for that way of music within the family of hip hop, but now it is the central message. It merged with R&B to become pop, and in time the figure of the lone lyricist became entertainment for the suburbs, the more the rapper leans onto the image of "the gangster", the more he/she sells. In fact I `d go as far to say America is far much comfortable with the idea of a black/latino living a semi criminal lifestyle than one speaking truth, talking about history, or social cohesion. (Partly to do with the country`s love of the outlaw, just as with portrayals of the "old wild west" type cowboys, the rogue detective who gets results and other mostly Hollywood hyped character types )

Yes, it came from the hip hop community itself, but how has it become it`s spokesperson? How come the hyper masculine, capitalistic, gangster approach to Hip Hop become the de facto stance that used to have a plethora of voices and styles? A good place to start is the distribution chain. What you get to hear is now determined by a few corporations. Getting a deal doesn`t mean you can now start saying what you want with labels able to reject songs that do not fit, or getting blacklisted by TV stations and radio stations having their playlist curated by higher forces and not, by the DJ themselves.

This documentary has the people who were part of Hip Hop from the very beginning plus views from current generation as to why this has happened...and how it happened. Who had been blacklisted from the music TV shows, who bought what out and what was the consequences.

STARRING: Afrika Bambaataa, KRS-ONE, Busy Bee, Kool Keith, MC Lyte, Slick Rick, Jean Grae, Gemini plus more....

DIRECTOR: Sonali Aggarwal:

What happened to Hip Hop?

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