Fulbright-mtvU Fellows

HANGMAN

I’m nearly finished with the production phase of my documentary film. There have been ups and downs, and documentary film making is definitely a much more challenging undertaking than I ever imagined! However it has been an absolute pleasure working with the stars of my films, the passionate and talented musicians who have agreed to participate and have taken the time and energy to contribute to my project. As I begin editing my film together, I wanted to profile some of these artists here.

Brent Samuel Strathdee is the bass player for the self described “hard edge deep funk” group HANGMAN. I was lucky enough to come upon HANGMAN through a mutual friend who was a teammate of mine in the Auckland 48 Hour Filmmaking Competition. While Brent’s background is both Māori and Scottish, HANGMAN prides itself on being a multicultural group that reflects a universal human experience, rather than targeting an audience of any particular background.

Here are some passages from my enlightening interview with Brent, as well as some photos from the awesome performance that I recorded for my documentary. Enjoy!
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Tags: Auckland 48 Hour Filmmaking Competition, Brent Samuel Strathdee, HANGMAN

The Grand Land

I have been conducting interviews with young people participating in the Hip Hop Therapy Project on their views about American Hip Hop music and culture (a report on that to come shortly!). During one of these interviews, a young man named Ojok Thomas told me he was a rapper so I asked him to rap for me.

He rapped a song he wrote about “returning to the Grand Land”. I wanted to share it with you because it is a wonderful illustration of how Hip Hop is used throughout the world (including Gulu!) to express social concerns and frustrations.
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Tags: Gulu, Hip Hop Therapy Project, Ojok Thomas