ABIS PRODUCTIONS TO PRODUCE PAPA GROWS FUNK DOCUMENTARY
Papa Grows Funk’s final concert at the Maple Leaf. “If I see someone [at a PGF concert] standing still I want to light their hair on fire,” said Quint Davis. SAM RADUTZKY STORY BY ABIGAIL LEVNER GUEST COLUMNIST
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very filmmaker has a story to tell, but not always the funding or support to get that story told. When Papa Grows Funk, a New Orleans music staple for over 13 years, announced their hiatus from performing, Josh Freund and Sam Radutzky decided to take action by telling the story of the “greatest music scene on earth through the lens of one of its greatest bands,” according to Radutzky. But they needed $25,000 and the band’s consent to tell that story properly. Freund and Radutzky, who create music videos for clients like Flow Tribe and Jon Cleary as ABIS Productions, conceived the idea for a Papa Grows Funk documentary soon after the band announced their hiatus in January. “We are huge fans and felt it would be great to do a 15- to 20-minute video about them,” said Freund. “We originally conceived the project as something very small.” That month, they pitched the idea to Papa Grows Funk frontman John “Papa” Gros at an impromptu business meeting in the Maple Leaf Bar bathroom (it was the only quiet place in the venue). Gros and the band were immediately on board, connecting Freund and Radutzky to press at WWOZ and interviews with highprofile figures like musicians Allen Toussaint and George Porter, Jr., music journalist John Swenson, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival producer Quint Davis, and Howling Wolf owner Howie Kaplan, among others. What started as a short video quickly grew into a full-
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LOUISIANA FILM & VIDEO MAGAZINE
ISSUE FOUR 2013
length Papa Grows Funkumentary. “The fact that the band backed the project from day one gave us incredible access to all these figures that we wouldn’t have been able to talk to otherwise,” said Freund. Radutzky noted, “You’ll learn about every member, get inside their head, see how they tick.” With the band’s support secured, ABIS turned their attention to funding. “We want to do this right,” said Freund. “It’s a great story, a local story, but it relates to music fans all over the world. And we absolutely need funding for that.” This June, ABIS launched a $25,000 fundraising campaign on IndieGoGo, the online crowdsourcing platform popular with independent filmmakers needing access to mass online audiences and funding for projects that otherwise might never reach completion. In 2012, Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie raised $325,327 of its $75,000 fundraising goal, becoming one of the most success-
ful indie films in IndieGoGo history. While a variety of fundraising platforms exist—Kickstarter being a major competitor—ABIS chose IndieGoGo specifically for its donor rewards system, which incentivizes potential donors with redeemable prizes. For a month, ABIS collected reward packages from local businesses, music venues and band members eager to support a Papa Grows Funkumentary. The result was an enticing prize inventory consisting of guitarist June Yamagishi’s wah-wah pedal, Marc Pero’s bass, a saxophone class with Jason Mingledorff, cooking lessons with John Gros, gift certificates to local businesses, and tickets to music venues across the country. In July, the film surpassed its fundraising goal by over $3,000. The budget will largely support professional post-production work, including animated sequences of local artist Frenchy’s “live action” concert paintings. Gesturing to independent music docs Searching for Sugarman and Twenty Feet from Stardom, which landed distribution deals after going the festival circuit, Freund noted, “I don’t know what’s going to happen yet, but we’re going to make something very captivating. And we have the network to get it in front of someone who’s going to want to, and be able to, take it to the next level.” Now in the editing stages, ABIS expects to release the film in January 2014, in time for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. LFV