MILKIN’ IT

The Story so far....

When I heard Milkin’ It for the first time I had a million images running through my head. I thought about it for a while and ended up reminiscing big time about the early days of hip hop. As a 12-14 year old I tripped effortlessly from disco to punk and reggae that segued nicely into funk and hip hop via new wave. This was not an accident. All of these music genres had one thing in common - real communities doing it for themselves, being themselves, creative expression via any means necessary.

Milkin’ It reminded me that this has never left me. Around the same time, Nile Rodgers of Chic (who ironically created one of the most sampled breaks ever with Good Times) posted me a link via Twitter to a viral turf dance film RIP June saying ‘watch this’! The whole thing blew me away. I loved the simplicity of the shooting style, the dance was a language in itself, a tiny little slice of life on the corner in its most true form - a homage to a dead friend taken too soon. I started researching the background to Turf Dancing and discovered that it is unique to Oakland, Ca. At that time I was away filming in Miami. I started gathering little bits here and there where I could for the film and although I got some good stuff it lacked the essence of what I had planned to say or show in the film. And then I decided - if Oakland was the catalyst then that is where the video should be shot. It wasn’t easy on a shoestring budget but with a lot of focus, chat, borrowing, begging, serious karma, some rediscovered airmiles and not taking no for an answer it finally happened.

It all started over a simple cup of tea. When I first listened to Milkin’ It I was in a teashop with Tjinder Singh - he made me put on headphones and listen to several new tracks. I felt a bit self-conscious - (a) because we were in a teashop and he was making me wear big headphones and (b) because he only played me 45 second snippets of each track and I felt a bit scrutinised for a reaction. But part of this psychological musical experiment had a twist. I couldn’t choose which track to make a film for! Two weeks later I got a happy surprise in an email. Cornershop had decided I was to make a film for Milkin’ It.

6 weeks before:I’ve decided that I want to feature 2 turf dancers in the film - ENinja and Chonkie. Getting hold of them is very difficult. I am having to befriend them on Facebook, find the viral film makers from RIP June and scour the internet for any other possible leads. They must wonder what a 45 year old English woman called The Rockmother can possibly want from them...I mail them and try to explain. I sit and wait. And wait. And wait. Nothing except comments of ‘LOL’ and ‘like’ appear on my Facebook posts asking them to be in my film. Rethink.

3 weeks before:Via the amazing power of Twitter I get a lead via Tazzy Star, an Oakland based fan of Cornershop. She knows someone who may know someone. I call both ‘someones’ and mail one of them. That one of them was Desi W.O.M.E.

Breakthrough. Desi runs an incredible co-op called the Community Rejuvenation Project a collective of gifted street artists, activists and photographers that encourage communities to work together through mural painting, music, cultural expression and empowerment.. He agrees for his work to be featured in the film and says he’ll take me round when I get to Oakland. He also says he can get me dancers. This is good.

2 weeks before:I get an answer from the viral filmmakers who say it is unlikely that ENinja and Chonkie will appear in the film but they can give me a couple of lesser well known dancers. Rethink number 2. I start looking up hotel accommodation on discount websites and discover that my long lost friend Tonino from over 20 years ago is now running one of the best hotels in Oakland. Tonino was like a Dad to me when mine was estranged. I was a 19yr old waitress living alone and Tonino kept me on the straight and narrow when my life could have gone a little crooked. This is karma. Not only am I going to Oakland in search of turf dancers - I am going to see an old friend who will be a familiar face in an unfamiliar place. I feel like someone is watching over me.

1 week before:The dancers aren’t happening. I’m not going to give up now and decide to wing it. I have the final chat of only two I have had so far with Desi and give him my arrival date and details of where I will be staying. I take the plunge and use the last of my airmiles on a return ticket to Oakland. This is happening. The tsunami in Japan is also happening which means I can’t get a mic for my camera. Somehow it will all work out.

4 days before:I am still hassling for those dancers. I decide that I’ll just have to go and look for them once I am there. Mad but true. I make a throwaway comment on my photographer friend Annie’s blog. She is in the US - would she like to come and shoot stills for my shoot in 4 days’ time in America’s 4th most dangerous city? Ha ha - I think - no she won’t.

3 days before:Annie says yes. She is getting on a train from Oregon to Oakland in 2 days time and will arrive on the first shoot day. Amazing. And all for a train ticket and promise of a waterfront bedroom. Despite being friends online for about 6 years this will be the first time we have ever met in person. I couldn’t wish for a better cohort.

1 day before:My camera is new and I haven’t shot films on it yet. What if it all turns out hi speed - or god forbid black?! I hardly sleep.

Saturday:I’m off. I’m on the plane feeling remarkably calm in the face of flying into the void. I play Chic’s ‘Le Freak’ over and over to myself in my head. It has become my mantra.

Day 1:I arrive. It’s a Sunday. I get on the BART and head for town. I have no idea where I am going. Lucky for me I have a photographic memory and remember the map in my head. I bottle it when I get out on Broadway and decide to get a cab. The cab guy says he won’t take me as it’s not far enough. So I walk. The route involves walking under the freeway and over the railroad track. Yeaaah. I am sticking out like a great, big, sore thumb. I am suddenly really jetlaggingly annoyed with Tonino for telling me it’s just a short walk from the subway. No it’s not!

‘Excuse me Miss?’

I turn round and see a very thin, tall man walking towards me with one hand outstretched. He has no shoes and his other hand is scrunched at his waist trying to keep a huge pair of oversize trousers up. I give him some money. He says thank you so politely. As he turns to count the bills his trousers slip and fall down completely. He is desperately embarrassed and scrabbles to pull them back up. His temporary loss of what dignity he has left makes me feel so sad and I show him I am not looking. I carry on past the bail bond shop and hum to myself nervously. I feel like I am being followed by 100 sets of eyeballs.

Finally, the hotel is in sight.

An hour later:There is a knock at the door. Tonino hasn’t changed a bit. Friendly, Scottishly terse and always funny without realising it. It is like we saw each other yesterday. I make a little film on my flip camera for Annie that I never send and call Desi.

He is quite insistent that we go straight out to look at locations. I agree to meet him in an hour. An hour later I get a pointed call from reception ‘Madam, your ‘guest’ has arrived’. I pack my camera and head out. I’m not sure who saw who first. I know I saw the most un-Americanly beaten up old beige banger I have ever set my eyes on. I walked over to the passenger side.

‘Hi’

‘Desi?’

‘Hi’

Desi looked visibly shocked - I think he thought I was going to be younger? A different colour? Taller perhaps? I don’t know but he definitely looked surprised. He stared at me through his glasses, music blaring - I climbed into the broken seat and we sped off at what felt like another very un-American 100 miles per hour.

We bounced over the railroad tracks and bombed up the ramp to the freeway. Empty aerosol cans clanged together and tons of stray paper fluttered around in the back seat. I suddenly realised I didn’t know who I was actually with, where I was going and practised an elaborate escape roll from the passenger window in my head.

I didn’t need to.

The trip was eventful. Desi showed me some of his amazing street art and introduced me to a few people. He watched over as I was taken for a cop by ex-Black Panther ‘Ray P-Funk’ who insisted on frisking me a little too vigorously. He was worried I had a gun. To be truthful I was more worried he had a gun. Ray opens the film. I get back to an email from the viral filmmakers saying that they are finally after all this time too busy to help. I fire an exasperated email back.

What a waste of time.

I log back on to facebook and message ENinja. Miraculously, within 20 mins he replies, within an hour we are talking on the phone and within a day I am standing on the corner of 88th and International meeting ENinja and Chonkie in person. Karma has finally been restored.

Day 2:I wake up and make another film for Annie I never send. I go out again with Desi all day. He is still a bit awkward but he takes me to some great places. We hare up Macarthur Boulevard to 83rd Ave. Something draws me to this corner and I shoot some reference shots. The corner features a huge memorial wall to a double youth killing. Two young women killed by stray bullets from a drive-by shooting. No one is around. No one goes out. I am beginning to understand why.

We then drive up to 88th Ave and International to meet ENinja and Chonkie. This is where they live, so this is where I’ll shoot. I arrange to see them in 2 days’ time.

Day 3:Annie arrives.

‘Hello Thelma’ I say

‘Hello Louise’ she replies. And we laugh.

I go out to get a hire car. I am terrified of driving an automatic hire car through a city I don’t know - again - something I don’t tell Annie.We meet Desi and head out down International Boulevard. He then tells us he has to go to work. Can we drop him off? We will be fine.

‘People don’t be trippin’ on neutral people like you’ he says and abandons us. Annie seems a bit shellshocked as we drive into the upper 80’s.

‘Shall we just concentrate on abstract shots today’? I ask, sensing her sudden quietness.

‘Yes I think so’ she says.

I take her to ‘drive-by corner’ on 83rd and Macarthur. We meet some kids who are hanging on the corner waiting for their Mum who drives the school bus. We start filming and then do some tracking shots out of the car window. People start to notice as we go round the block twice. I overhear someone say ‘she was round here yesterday’. They think we are undercover cops. I’m thinking back to my earlier frisking with Ray P-Funk and thinking this may not be good. Luckily our English accents. enthusiasm for East Oakland and Turfing go a long way. People were looking out for us. I felt safer there than downtown where we had a double shooting next to the hotel the night before. 88th and International was the place to be.

Day 4:Eninja and Chonkie finally made it on to film. We met some serious characters along the way, did some things. We stopped by an impromptu eviction protest. As a favour I agreed to film the residents’ story. It all unfolded before my eyes. The police had gained illegal entry the night before, smashed up the property and intimidated the residents some of whom were old, frightened and unwell. A policeman showed up as I was filming and amazingly admitted his force were in the wrong.

I recorded some very poignant interviews - some of which made it on to local news the next day. My enduring memory is of 7yr old Kevere, bright as a shiny, new button presenting me with his dinosaur pictures while I talked to Gordon who was watching Kevere draw. Gordon was on his way to hospital in his wheelchair. He had recently become homeless, had pneumonia and diabetes and was living in a bus shelter. He came out to support the residents on his way to hospital. He was hoping that they wouldn’t amputate his foot and was still mentally struggling after having the first one amputated a few months before. This harsh contrast of the beginning of life and the probable end of life brought together in one shot was overwhelmingly galling. I gave Gordon a big hug as I left. I knew I would never see him again. “I’ll be around somewhere” he said as he looked to the sky. I knew exactly what he meant. Some nights I look up to the sky as he did and think of him. You will see Gordon in the film.

Day 5:We went back up International Blvd and saw a bad thing involving guns on 78th and Macarthur. It was our last day and we figured we had shot enough. We got back in the car and drove fast into the morning past the African People’s Socialist Party HQ for the last time. We love you Oakland.

This film could not have been made without the following people:The endless patience, kindness and encouragement of Tjinder Singh, Ben Ayres and Marie Remy

The nicest man in music Nile Rodgers who without his creative spark I truly believe this film would not have been madeAnnie Atkins who stepped up to the plate and was my rock and beyond

Tonino Drovandi who has never changed and whom I would trust with my life alwaysDesi W.O.M.E. for his total human generosity, his art and his faith in strange women from the UKENinja and Chonkie F Tutz who are simply the best and whose destiny shines big Turf Feinz style

Tazzy Star who doesn’t realise it but is in fact a star and was the crucial lynchpinAiyahnna Johnson, her family and all the tenants of Marin Way Court

Simon Hilton for constantly telling me I could do it and spending hours digitising all my materialPhil Currie for grabbing the challenge and turning it into a beautiful reality

Ian and George at MPC who looked, saw and showed me unbelievable kindnessLuis Martinez, Nathan, Saw, Freddie Mac, Beats, Kevere, Ray P-Funk from Funktown, Bay City Alternators,

Antoinette and Toni Bell, Jae, DD, especially Gordonand all the people of deep East Oakland who were gracious enough to take us at face value.

We love you.

© Astrid Edwards Rockmother Films 2011 for Ample Play

MILKIN’ ITDirected , Filmed and Produced by

Astrid Edwardshttp://rockmother.posterous.com/www.twitter.com/therockmother

http://tubetales.tumblr.com/

Additional Stills and PhotographyAnnie Atkins

www.annieatkins.com

TelecineGeorge K at MPC Londonwww.moving-picture.com

Edited byPhil Currie at Stitch Editing

www.stitchediting.tv

Milkin’ It by Cornershop

© Rockmother Films for Cornershop 2011

Come find us:www.cornershop.com

www.facebook.com/CornershopHQwww.facebook.com/ampleplay

www.twitter.com/cornershopHQwww.turffeinz.com