Afro-Punk 2003

The Other Black Experience

This film, which many may assume is a historical punk documentary, actually is an honest and needed treatment of race and identity. Punk and Hardcore music is simply the microcosm in which it is told. First time Director, James Spooner, in telling this story, has opened new dialogues on these crucial subject both intra and interracially. Many times funny, sometimes sobering, a wake up call to America. An examination of the duality of racial identity that DuBois called "double consciousness." What could have been "The Bad Brains Story" is a story about kids, alienated by two cultures and two communities. Many of these punk and hardcore kids have never questioned their role in the punk scene or the black community until their interviews, and it's obvious as they struggle on camera to reconcile a fragmented self.