The history of filmmaking
is replete with bizarre and strange tales of productions gone awry, or hijacked
… or slipping off into the void.
Perhaps there is none stranger than writer/director Paul DeSilva’s 1990
New York City drug-fueled “docudrama” titled Crackdown Big City Blues.
Filmed with a mix of cinéma vérité, choreographed street
violence and documentary-style messaging, Crackdown Big City Blues is a time
capsule of the 1990s crack epidemic that ravaged New York City, especially the
Black and Hispanic communities. It was
raw and ready to rumble!
As with many indie
productions — both then and now — getting the film made was one thing, getting
it distributed was yet another. The Blaxploitation boom of the 1970s was
past its prime, so it couldn’t be slotted into that mix for distribution … and
its anti-drug message found few takers at the time. The film was put up on the shelf and then
suddenly in 1997 DeSilva dropped dead of a heart attack … Crackdown Big City Blues
would be forgotten.
That is, until now. The
Film Detective has teamed up with Paul DeSilva’s life-long friend and former narcotics
detective, Frazier Prince, to restore Crackdown Big City Blues from the
original 35mm archived print for both Blu-ray and DVD distribution on Nov. 20.
The film is not only a
trip down memory lane — a pre-9/11 time capsule of the gritty streets of New
York City — but the film also features vintage performances from the likes of Rhonda
Ross Kendrick (the daughter of Diana Ross and Berry Gordy), former Charger,
Packers and Browns pro-football player of the early 1970s, Jim Hill and recording
artist Stu “Large” Riley.
Bonus goodies include
newly prepared video sessions with Frazier Prince and sound designer Jim
Markovic, a making-of featurette, with includes early 8mm location footage shot
by filmmaker Paul DeSilva and a newly prepared behind-the-scene featurette
hosted by Frazier Prince, who returns to the original locations from 1990.
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