FW: to all my African American friends

[Moorbey]

Subject: Fw: to all my African American friends

TAKE A GOOD LOOK AT THIS VIDEO..... IT MAKES YOU THINK, AND NO DOUBT WE ARE IN A CIVIL WAR.......

LA TANYA
in case U haven't seen this
check this video out

A War For Your Soul-Birmingham version on Vimeo

[G1deon]

Ny Response from Reggie Bullock (film maker):

Greetings Brother Gideon,
I am in complete understanding that a few concepts in the video can certainly be challenged, but please realize that one of the most difficult challenges that I faced in creating a film for at-risk African American kids, is time restraints.

Working with at-risk kids for many years has taught me, their attention span is only about 8 minutes long, so my film should have been much shorter than it was, the second factor, it is very hard to express in video footage the true messages that you may want to mention in a 17 min film.

Do we expect a 17 minute film to reach all African-Americans and their varying degrees of issues? That would be unfair to any filmmaker. Believe it or not, my initial intent for this film, was to reach a handful of young kids and give them a sense of history, so they may realize the struggles that took place before them, so they can possibly look at education or the ease at which they can slip into violence in a different way.

My next goal, after completing this film, was to create an entire series of short films that would take apart the many problems that we face (institutional racism, psychological racism..ect.),...

If the "N" word were eliminated tomorrow would that solve our problems as African Americans? If black kids stop killing each other would create jobs for them? No.. No... No..

The point I am trying to make, is that there is no such thing as a ten minute film that can do that...it is impossible, my next film is only going to be ten minutes long, can you imagine the creative battle I am going to have, trying to convey some of the complex issue that you probably were thinking about that needed to be mentioned, to a certain child in ten minutes and I might lose him or her at the 8 minute mark.


I wish I had some way of knowing the mental capacity of each person this video was going to reach, because if it were choice, you would be one of those individuals, that would be able to truly breakdown the video and use it as a teaching tool, or a tool to foster discussion. Is it old vs young, is it hip-hop culture, is it the use of words, is it rich vs. poor....so many discussions.

I truly thank you for your letter, but please remember that the film was not created for the academic or religious intellectuals, it was created to stop the deaths that are taking place in the streets all over the US, and the mental deaths that are taking place in the classrooms...I hope and pray that this film also continues to reach people like yourself that have the capacity to break down many of the issues at a deeper level for kids to grasp.

Remember there are many conspiracies that would take over 3 hours to explain to a child that is ready to pick up a gun and kill someone, if you don't get his attention in 5 minutes. I only mention this to you because if I thought the film was made for me and all of the history that I know, I would find the film weak in certain respects...but if I were to show it to the many at-risk kids that i have worked with for the past twenty years...then I know I would grab their attention and then teach them some more history to supplement some of the images that were shown. Please Stay in Touch.

Your Brother in the Struggle!

Peace & Blessings
Reggie Bullock (producer of "A WAR FOR YOUR SOUL")
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