by jon bosworth jaxvillain@yahoo.com
WHAT: Grind2Shine Movie Premiere
starring Young Ca$h, Swordz, Raw from No Luv, Rebel Gang, Blakhart, Rob Roy, Anonymous, Talkin Trees, Mamado, P.I.T., G-Thang, Chrizac, Whole Wheat Bread, Bigga Rankin & many many more!
WHEN: Saturday, October 14th, 6PM
WHERE: The Florida Theatre
INFO: (904)-355-2787
“When the mayor says we need to do something about the crime rate in this city and I’m waving a film in the air, you hope they’ll take an interest. I might have a Band Aid here if they don’t get turned off by the words hip-hop.”
Chad Hendricks and his cousin Josh Skierski (“we’re double Pollack”) started making movies back in 2000. The two of them had a camera and a halogen lamp to make the urban comedy 2 Heads 1 Brain.
“A mid-life crisis at 29 made me bounce to LA, I was already too old to care about the club scene, so I was an extra in all kinds of shows. I met a cat that told me about a screenwriter’s handbook. I picked one up, went to the 7-11, grabbed a 40 and waited for creativity to come.”
Grind2Shine is his “sixth kid” and it is a documentary about Jacksonville’s burgeoning hip-hop scene. With his new partner John W. Sloan, Jr (“He’s the graham cracker, I’m the saltine”) Hendricks arrived at his second mid-life crisis.
“The self-analysis of being 35 with no wife, no kids, no life. I was sick of radio and TV. Realizing I love my city…running from my city then realizing how I love it. Learning how to be a starving artist in town made me want to make a movie about other starving artists here in town. I’m looking for the truth and I knew Duval would give it to me, good or bad, this city will give it to you.”
Based on the national success of his second movie, Cracker Jack’d, Hendricks thought he was well on the road to his dreams coming true, but many of the films that followed never saw the light of day. That’s not to say the success didn’t help.
“It validated me to some extent.”
His sister put down a credit card to purchase the very expensive camera he needed to start a project like this. With the camera in tow, Hendricks began to document the immense talent he found around town.
“Being a hip-hop kid for twenty years, the melding of film and hip-hop to me is the cat’s meow. I wasn’t old enough to be in New York when hip-hop blew up there in the 70s, I wasn’t in LA when it blew up there in the 80s, but the talent level here is insane. Across the board; hip-hop, rock, art, film.”
When Hendricks realized the level of talent available here in his hometown, he and his partner John Sloan, seen in the movie as J-Pimp, began to document it.
“It’s just a window into the psyche of the starving artists in this city. The positive side of what’s coming out of the streets while the headlines read ‘98 murders in 9 months.’ If we could get the radio to put local artists on, we wouldn’t have to call them local anymore. [Grind2Shine] is just a glimpse of the scene.”
The film is named after a quote from Houston rapper Mike Jones who said “If U don’t grind, U don’t shine” and it highlights a positive message coming out of the streets of our town to counter the negativity of Jacksonville’s murder rate.
“This movie gives the hood a voice, gives the streets a voice. There is an artist named 2 Sweet in this movie. You see him rapping in his living room, and then you see him on a T-shirt at his funeral. This music is intertwined with life and death.”
Hendricks’ affinity for urban themes might seem strange coming from a white, Polish kid from the South, but he has always been a fan of the honesty of the 70s. He grew up with shows like The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, and Good Times. A new thing was also emerging from black culture. Rap music.
“I was just that trailer park kid that rode the bus with the kids from the projects. It’s not about color it’s about character.”
2 Crackers and a Lamp Productions is premiering Grind2Shine at the Florida Theater on October 14th. After that showing they hope to bring the film to the Slam Dance Film Fest in Utah at the end of January.
“When I looked back at it I said: ‘damn, that’s impressive. Whoever did that is a bad man. I wanna live in that city. Hopefully this will help the city fall in love with itself.”
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