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Production Notes
Project Background A boy stands alone on a tenement rooftop overlooking New York City at dawn. The year is 1936. The boy, drawn from Piri Thomas' autobiographical novel, Down These Mean Streets, calls out for the world to take notice of his existence. Like many inner-city boys living today, his cry expresses not only the power of his emerging manhood, but also his growing rage. Piri Thomas, an Afro-Latino of Cuban and Puerto Rican ancestry, grew up in the hardscrabble world of New York City in the 1930’s and ‘40’s. In those days, there was not much talk about civil rights, diversity or multiculturalism. Racism and intolerance -- that’s just how it was. Piri was an outsider, an immigrants’ child, unwanted with his mixed-race identity, and poor, especially in the reflected light of Hollywood movies. It took life as a teenage gang member, it took becoming a junkie, and it took nearly seven years behind bars for Piri Thomas to choose life. He chose life through the power of words, through his stories and his poetry.
The weapons of choice during Thomas’ youth were fists, sometimes a zip gun. Today, they are semi-automatic guns with cop-killer bullets. How did we get here? Where are we going? Do we have a choice? Are there alternatives? Piri Thomas’ life story, his writings, and his on-going work toward youth development and the betterment of society presents us with an opportunity to examine the past so that we might better see the future.
1. To examine, through the life and work of Piri Thomas, the struggle of our nation’s youth and young adults for survival, their search for identity, and the effects of racism, poverty, violence, and imprisonment upon them; 2. To stimulate in youth and young adults an appreciation for literature and poetry, so that they are inspired to excel in reading and writing, and create a means to express their experiences, both good and bad, as well as their dreams and desires; 3. To create the opportunity for a dialogue and critical discussion on many of the fundamental social issues facing urban America today; and 4. To connect with the greatest possible audience for that moment of recognition when the sense of ‘other-ness’ and ‘outsider-ness’ is seen not as one’s burden alone, but as a universal condition. As Thomas says, “the cruelest prison of all is the prison of the mind.”
When In Doubt Productions is dedicated to producing films about
social issues and the way in which these issues are reflected and
explored in arts and letters. Producer-Director’s Bio
Karen D. Davis, Co-Producer - Ms. Davis is a writer, director, producer and media studies instructor based in Berkeley, California. Davis began her professional career in 1992, as the producer of director Lisa Krueger’s ("Manny & Lo"; "Committed") first narrative film, "Best Offer", which premiered at Sundance. Davis’ humorous short documentary on "extreme" gardening in suburbia, "Over the Hedge", aired on PBS’ "P.O.V." series in 1993 and at more than 40 domestic and international film festivals, earning high praise from the late New York Times critic Vincent Canby who reviewed the film after its premiere at New Directors/New Films. Following a two year Fulbright residency at FEMIS, the National Academy of Film in Paris, France, Davis began teaching at California State University - Monterey Bay in the Dept. of Teledramatic Arts and Technology. She is currently scripting a new project. Karen McCabe, Co-Producer - Ms. McCabe Produced-Directed the documentary Making Tutti for the Independent Television Service (ITVS), broadcast nationally on PBS. Ms. McCabe has been line producer and production manager on a variety of projects including Luis Valdez' La Pastorela for Great Performances on PBS, Wayne Wang's Joy Luck Club, Roger Spottiswood's And the Band Played On for HBO, Wim Wender's Until the End of the World, and numerous commercials and music videos. Juan Sanchez, Artwork & Still Photographs - A native of Brooklyn, Juan Sanchez is a professor of Fine Arts at the City University of New York. His artwork was featured in the internationally touring exhibition "Latin American Art of the 20th Century" and is part of the Museum of Modern Art's and the Whitney Museum of American Art's permanent collections. Sanchez is a past recipient of New York Foundation for the Arts, Guggenheim, and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. Coco Fusco, writing in Art in America describes Sanchez as a "healer" whose work is "charged with many voices in Spanish and English. Drawing heavily on the forms of oral culture, particularly Puerto Rican plena songs, as well as radical poetry and oraciones, Sanchez pays homage to the way those storytelling practices serve as testimonials in a resistance culture." Adam Beckman, Director of Photography Kip Hanrahan, Music Composer-Producer - Born to Jewish-Irish parents in the South Bronx, Kip Hanrahan grew up playing percussion in neighborhood Puerto Rican salsa bands. As a composer and producer, he has created a rich body of work with such artists as Ruben Bladés, Jack Bruce, Eddie Palmieri, Taj Mahal, Allen Toussaint, Bobby Womack and Sting. Hanrahan has produced Conjure: Music for the Texts of Ishmael Reed, Darn It! An Anthology of Poetry by Paul Haines, and three highly acclaimed recordings (including Tango: Zero Hour) by legendary Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla. Hanrahan’s most recent projects include a multi-part re-telling of the Arabian Nights, A Thousand Nights and a Night, the formation of the ensemble Deep Rhumba with Roby Ameen and El Negro Horacio Henandez, and the soundtrack to the Miramax film, Piñero. Kip Hanrahan composed, arranged and produced the main score for Every Child is Born a Poet. John Santos, Music Composer-Producer - Born in San Francisco, California, November 1, 1955, percussionist, composer, writer and educator John Santos was raised in the Puerto Rican and Cape Verdean traditions of his family, surrounded by music. Widely respected as one of the top writers, educators and historians in the field, Santos is a member of the Latin Jazz Advisory Committee of the Smithsonian Institution. Santos is a multi-percussionist and recording artist, whose diverse credits include: Grupo Mezcla, Irakere West, Santana, Cal Tjader, Charlie Hunter, Danilo Perez, Linda Tillery, Ignacio Berroa, Bobby Hutcherson, McCoy Tyner, Lalo Schifrin, Jon Jang, Yma Sumac, Pete and Sheila Escovedo, Mark Murphy, John Faddis, Batacumbele and Batucaje. He was the director of the Orquesta Tipica Cienfuegos (l976-1980) and the Orquesta Batachanga (1981-1985). Santos currently directs the Machete Ensemble and frequently records and tours with the Cuban piano phenomenon Omar Sosa. John Santos composed, arranged and produced the music for the La Peseta sequence in Every Child is Born a Poet. Jeanette Torruella-Plaza, Casting Director-Drama Consultant - Actress, writer, and director Torruella-Plaza has performed at a variety of venues throughout New York City including Joe's Pub, P.S.122 and Aaron Davis Hall where she was awarded a grant to write, direct and perform her one woman show Ain't No Thing But a Chicken Wing. Plaza has written and directed several children's plays for the Henry Street Settlement. Currently, she writes and performs at the Nuyorican Poets Café for the comedy troupe, Nuyorican Rule. When she is not in the theater she is in the classroom teaching, coaching and directing children of all ages in theater and film. Eric Camacho, actor (Young Adult Piri Thomas) - Camacho was born to Puerto Rican parents in the South Bronx and was raised in Puerto Rico as well as New York City. Camacho began acting, singing, songwriting, and playing Latin Percussion, while attending the Adelia E. Stevenson School of Music. In high school, Camacho was a winner on the MTV show, Say What Karaoke. Camacho has been a member of Pregones and Spark theater companies. Camacho currently teaches middle school chorus at The School of The Future's After School program in New York.
Savior, Savior Hold My Hand, about his life following his release from prison, reintegrating into society, working as a youth violence prevention counselor, and reuniting with his father. Stories from El Barrio, a collection of short stories about life in East Harlem for “children of all ages,” which includes such classics as “La Peseta” and “The Konk,” and “Amigo Brothers.”
For more information: When In Doubt Productions, Inc.
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"The making of this film stems from my having read Piri Thomas'
book, Down These Mean Streets, in 1972 as a twelve-year-old,” says
director Jonathan Robinson. “As an adult, I spent some time
working as an advocate for community-based alternatives to prison
for teens and young adults in the criminal justice system. There
I witnessed an intense hunger for poems and stories, which validated
people’s experiences and helped them to understand the circumstances
which led to their incarceration. As a kid, I identified, in reading
Down These Mean Streets, with Thomas’ frustration and anger
as he struggled to win acceptance from family, peers, and society,
while simultaneously seeking to forge a unique identity for himself.
The film, Every Child is Born a Poet, explores this search for
recognition and self-awareness through a merging of poetry, storytelling,
art and music. My goal has been to make a biographical documentary
that is personal, expressive, and socially engaged."
Piri Thomas’ seminal book, Down These Mean Streets, a modern
standard classic, which is taught widely today in middle schools,
high schools, colleges and universities, has been in print continuously
for over thirty-five years. A landmark in literature for its concern
with issues of poverty, youth violence, imprisonment, and racial
identity, as well as for its groundbreaking bilingual style, Down
These Mean Streets continues to be excerpted, anthologized, referenced,
discussed, and analyzed. It is as influential today in the schoolyard
and in the halls of academia as it was in 1967. Along with Claude
Brown’s Manchild in the Promised Land and The Autobiography
of Malcolm X, Down These Mean Streets is for many Black and Latino
youths and adults one of the most important, life-changing books
they have or will ever read. In 1995, The New York Times named
Down These Mean Streets one of the all-time "10 Best Books
About New York." In the recent anthology Aloud: Voices from
the Nuyorican Poet's Café, editor/poet Bob Holman writes,
simply, “Down These Mean Streets is what many of us call
home.”
Piri Thomas is not, however, simply a writer. When Thomas started
on his own path to self-reclamation, self-esteem, and self-respect,
he also made a life-long commitment to help others do the same.
Since the time of his release from prison in 1956 to this day,
Thomas has devoted himself to the development, health and well-being
of youths and young adults. As a social worker, he pioneered violence
prevention and drug treatment efforts. As a poet and educator,
he has promoted literacy and sought to stimulate the growth of
individual creative expression, not only as a means of human enrichment,
but as a tool of individual and community survival. One of Thomas’ gifts
is his ability as a storyteller to bridge worlds and bring together
diverse communities. Today, at the age of seventy-five, Thomas
continues to appear on a regular basis in schools, community centers,
juvenile detention facilities, colleges, universities, and prisons
presenting lectures, readings, and conducting workshops, offering
hope and inspiration to those “at risk” and to those
who simply seek an alternative to the negativity and despair so
prevalent in the impoverished sectors of our society.
How, one might ask, is Piri Thomas, an elder, a senior citizen,
able to capture the attention of youth? When speaking to audiences
and reading his work, Piri Thomas combines Afro-Caribbean oral
traditions with the language of the streets, infused with the "Beat" stylizations
of word-jazz and the grooves of Latin dance music. It's rap from
the old school! With his commanding presence, razor sharp tongue,
and abundant sense of humor, Thomas speaks across generations with
wisdom, passion and immediacy. Yet, apart from his charisma and
his oratorical skills, Piri Thomas makes young people stop, listen,
and think by daring to say things that other adults are unwilling
or unable to say. Without judgment or condemnation, Thomas effectively
communicates his understanding of what motivates delinquent and
anti-social behaviors. In doing so, he evokes from youth a strong
response and a personal sense of identification, which is unusual
for any adult, let alone one his age.
Jonathan Robinson was born in New York City in 1960. He received
a B.A. in Modern History at the University of California,
Berkeley, and received an MFA in Live-Action Film Production
from the
California Institute of the Arts, Valencia. His video, sight
unseen: a travelog,
on India, cultural difference, and the contemporary colonial
imagination, was featured at 1993 Biennial Exhibition at
the Whitney Museum of American Art, was honored with the San
Francisco
Museum of Modern Art's SECA Video Art Award, and named Best
Experimental Video at the Image Atlanta Film & Video
Festival. Robinson has worked as a freelance editor and script
consultant
and extensively
in the nonprofit world of criminal and juvenile justice.
Currently, he lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his wife
and two daughters.