Documentries

The Story of A Journey

If I had to pick one thing that making birth of the "Hip Hop Dynasty" part 1 and 2 has done for me I would say it increased my faith in God, or higher power or divine overseer or whatever label you wish to put on the subject.

All I know is every day like clockwork God would show himself in the form of a blessing. No matter how big or small, it would always happen just when I needed it. Each time something happened I would take it as a reassurance that I was on the right track. It was reassurance that the blood, sweat, tears and constant sacrifice was for a purpose that I can't fully see yet but if I'm on the right track I'll get there.

What I mean to say is that I have a specific goal in mind for my company but for so many blessings to fall on one project I began to feel as if something or some effect bigger than what I had imagined or could imagine will be created from this project.

After a while my attitude in prayer was simple I'm in your hands. Sometimes I look at my
situation; no home of my own, meaning constantly sleeping on other peoples couches and floors. Once unfortunately, I had to try to sleep in the Milwaukee November night rain. It was not possible, at least for me.

I'm almost always broke but never look broke. And that is simply because my hip hop group, the Pendulum, all dress in the latest fashions like FUBU, Timberlands, Phat Farm, etc. and they give me the clothes, boots and even winter coats that they no longer wear.

For me the worst part of my situation and the biggest pain of all is the time that I have lost with my 2 sons by filming this project in Cali because there are no movie or recording opportunities in Milwaukee, yet.

When it comes my sons, through the years I can remember at times looking up into the clouds or sometimes the stars at night and crying streams of tears silently in my mind asking God to please end this journey of poverty and let me begin to take care of my family financially and most of all quality-time wise, whether it be from my movie, my records or TV show. Or even just to give me the will to stop making the movie and get a 9 to 5 job. Each time this happened, when the tears stopped I would feel very relieved and get a body tingling sensation and an overwhelming feeling to keep going in the direction I started. That direction is to complete the movie as soon as possible. And that meant work as many hours as I could stay awake. Subsequently when I slept I would dream about editing or filming or kung-fu, and if I needed anything I had faith it would be there. So, diligently I kept writing, producing, networking, directing, casting, acting, and practicing tai-chi and kung-fu to make sure that when I had to act in the movie my martial arts had nothing to do with acting.

But I'm getting off the point. I got on this subject by thinking of my struggles in completing this project..

So to continue, I truly feel as if I'm living a miracle. I mean think about it, how does a broke young African American man from Milwaukee with no credit produce 2 of the worlds first hip hop
kung-fu movies? Movies that involve over 500 people between them, and most of all part 2 is filmed in the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the most expensive places in America!

Completing part 1 was the true test because I had no source of income and would edit 12 to 13 hours a day every day or I would be filming. I can remember that many days seemed as if I was on a natural fast, meaning I had no food so I would go without food for most of the day, but every day like clock work somehow I would eat. Either I would go by someone's house, like Keisha Jackson, who would always ask me if I was hungry and immediately begin preparing something. Or sometimes when I was editing, someone out of the blue would bring me some money or an actual meal. I can remember my guy Dino bringing me a meal that his wife cooked and him quoting "our family just wanted you to know that we support what your doing". Times like that I would get that tingling warm chill over me and the overwhelming feeling that I was on the right path.

I produced a public access hip hop show (mental fitt-ness Zon other level pitt) for 5 years, this is how I got access to the equipment to do part one, but when it came time to package duplicates without money, a series of miracles began. But I will explain those events in my book.

Part two was a little bit easier because I could sell part one for my income, and with a product in hand it was easier to recruit talent. A woman who worked at the public access station respected my work and she got a film scholarship to the Art Institute in San Francisco, when she got there she called me and told me that if I truly wanted to make it I needed to come out here. So I took two hundred movies and jumped on the Greyhound bus. Unfortunately the bus company lost 100 of those VHS's on the way there and never paid me for them, so I sold the hundred that I had plus my 2nd album (Pitt and Da Pendulum - "Born") on the streets of S.F and ordered more movies. The second day there I set up a screening at the Justice League, a major hip hop club in S.F and then begun casting and filming for part 2.

When it comes to blessings in Cali they were overwhelmingly plentiful. To make a long story short, I edited in the financial district of S.F using Avid (film editing software) for free. During that time I ran into world renowned Kung-fu masters who either joined the movie or offered to help and much, much more. This you will hear about in my book. I would like to end this by thanking God for choosing me to take this journey because in my mind whatever is happening and will happen from this project would have happened with or without me. I am simply a pawn in the creators game to be moved as the creator wishes.

Behind the scenes of a hip-hop, kung-fu movie

Teaching through multi-media Part 1

Teaching through multi-media Part 2