STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN
STREET FIGHTING MAN
Paul Justman, 2002 (116min)
Andrew James, 2013 (16min trailer + excerpt)
Standing in the Shadows of Motown recounts the story of The Funk Brothers, the uncredited and largely unheralded studio musicians who were the hand picked house band by Berry Gordy in 1959. They were the band who recorded and performed on Motowns’ recordings from 1959 to 1972. The film was inspired by the 1989 book Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson, a bass guitar instruction book by Allan Slutsky, which features the bass lines of James Jamerson.
Street Fighting Man is a character-driven documentary that follows three inner-city men – each a generation apart – as they seek to define their lives in post-industrial Detroit. Deris Solomon is a young single father who wants to leave behind a high-risk life on the streets; Luke Williams is a middle-aged man remodeling a former crack house after being homeless for several years; and James “Jack Rabbit” Jackson is a retired police officer struggling to save his neighborhood from crime after the local police station is dissolved. Through the stories of these men, the film unflinchingly reveals how hard it can be to build a future when everything seems to be crumbling around you. Street Fighting Man shares the lived experiences of the people who call Detroit home. As Luke collects cans and acquires reclaimed materials to make an old home new again, Jack Rabbit must stand up to violent young criminals who were once children in his neighborhood. Meanwhile, Deris has to decide how he will provide for his daughter: by struggling to get an education, or by selling drugs like many of his peers. For each of these men, it is a war of little battles, often waged at home, at school, or in the streets. And ultimately, their three narratives collapse into one, telling the tale of one man as he attempts to make it through his youth, midlife, and old age in post-industrial America.
09/21 @ 07:44PM
THE MAKESHIFT DETROIT Stephen McGee, 2010 (10min) A film about branding Detroit city and the entrepreneurial role needed.
42