BROOKLYN BOHEME IS BACK!

Re-launching my most personal film for black history month

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/brooklynboheme

From 1985 to 2017, I lived in multiple dwellings in the adjacent Brooklyn neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. It’s where I got my first apartment, wrote my first books and screenplays, and met a whole slew of artists who went on to greatness and fame. For a variety of reasons these two brownstone dominated areas became a Mecca for young black filmmakers, writers, musicians, dancers, poets, photographers, fashion designers, graphic artists and creative types of all descriptions. Many of the people I met during the ‘80s are still close friends and quite vital creatively. At night you could hear musicians rehearsing, singers doing scales and poets doing spoken word. At the cafe’s people shared their ideas and dreamed of touching the planet. Many of them did. Folks like Spike Lee, Chris Rock, Rosie Perez, Wesley Snipes, and Vernon Reid walked the tree lined streets.

(Photo taken by David Lee in 1988 in front of my Fort Greene apartment.)

This era of black artistic excellence went from roughly the early ‘80s right up to around 2000 when success allowed so many to either go to Hollywood or move down South. Gentrification began raising rents so that the next wave of young people looked elsewhere to start their New York hustle. Today the brownstones we lived in, which were often in disrepair because both neighborhoods were red lined by banks, is a landscape of two and three million dollar homes, bordered by hi-rises and a sports arena. I haven’t lived in Fort Greene in six years and, aside from glorious Fort Greene Park, the place feels incredibly different.

(My co-director Diane Paragas with Spike Lee in Fort Greene Park.)

Thankfully, around 2010, I began shooting a documentary I titled Brooklyn Boheme along with filmmaker Diane Paragas. We captured a neighborhood in transition from what it was to what it is now. Spike Lee, who still has his production office there, along with actress Rosie Perez, playwright Carl Hancock Rux, jazzman Branford Marsalis, comedian Chris Rock, rock star Vernon Reid are among the present and former residents of the area we interviewed, as well as folks who aren’t famous but were crucial to defining the area, like Mike Thompson, the owner of the Brooklyn Moon Cafe. At the open mic nights at the Brooklyn Moon future stars Talib Kweli, Sarah Jones, Erykah Badu, Saul Willams and Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def) first stepped on stage.

(Home page for Brooklyn Boheme on Vimeo.)

Brooklyn Boheme played a bunch of festivals in 2012 and had a nice run on Showtime, but we had a bad distributor later and the film disappeared for a few years. But, just in time for black history month, we’ve got it re-launched in Vimeo-on-Demand, where I hope it has a great new life. The film is available for rent or purchase now and there are four short features for viewing which feature some of the artists in the film (fine artist Simpson, spoken word star Williams, saxophonist Marsalis, Brooklyn Moon’s Thompson.) Released in 2011, its very much a period film now, though it actually was when we originally released it. It’s funny to think that 1985 is nearly forty years ago.

Brooklyn Boheme is a testament to creative collaboration, the power of community, and why meeting folks and talking is better than relying on social media. A lot of great art was made in Fort Greene and it all happened off-line.

A link to vimeo is at the top of the page or try this: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/brooklynboheme.