A South Bronx Tale
It was only 31 years ago that Gary Weis filmed his movie on South Bronx gang culture, [80 Blocks From Tiffanys], but it seems like an eternity. It was a whole different time and place. It was kind of like Dresden when I filmed there, the director now says of the rubble-strewn, bombed-outlooking borough where he shot his gripping, gritty documentary in the summer of 1979.
It was [Koch-era New York] when the South Bronx, one of the poorest areas in the nation, was such a rundown destitute place that both Presidents Carter and Reagan traveled there for photo ops to exemplify the most striking symbol they could find of urban decay in America. It was also the time and place when the subways were covered in graffiti and when a new music and culture called hip-hop was taking root in the Boogie Down Bronx.
80 Blocks, which Weis based on a 1977 Esquire article by Jon Bradshaw, offers a rare, intimate inside-look at the Savage Nomads and the Savage Skulls, two gangs that resided in the notorious 41st Precinct and ruled their hoods decked out in cutoff denim jackets with gang names proudly embroidered on their backs. They think theyre outlaws. I think theyre bums, Detective Bob Werner of NYPDs Youth Gang Task Force says in the films opening. Along with the many colorful Skulls and Nomads members, community activists and other locals, Werner is a recurring figure in this character-driven time capsule thats been recently recovered and fully restored for DVD release Nov 23.
A filmmaker for Saturday Night Live, Weis convinced SNL producer Lorne Michaels to help him produce his 67-minute documentary. I made it for NBC and they loved it but they never aired it, said Weis. Despite a limited educational VHS release in 1985, 80 Blocks has gained cult status in recent years, especially with hip-hop fans hungry for footage from this sparsely documented part of their cultures history. Filmmaker Travis Sanger, the director of the old-school hip-hop documentary White Lines and The Fever: The Death of DJ Junebug, cites the film as both an influence and a key source of content for his own film, calling it, The best documentation of the Bronx during the late 70s right before the gang culture started to fade away.
Gritty and raw-looking, with lots of hand-held camera shots, lovingly filmed by director of photography Joan Churchill, 80
Blocks is boldly honest and refreshingly not politically correct. I didnt go in there with a set thing to do. I wasnt trying to make any kind of social commentary as to whos good or whos bad or any of that business. I just went in there and found those guys really interesting and my intuition took me along, Weis says of the film.
In one scene Weis is inside the Savage Skulls headquarters, a building theyd taken over, letting the cameras roll as an intimidating and stoned-looking Skull member named Frankenstein turns the tables on the director and tensions begin to rise. With a swastika flag behind him on one side and a Jimi Hendrix poster on the other, he gets confrontational with Weis, demanding, Where do you live, huh? You come in with this buddy-buddy rap... It seems like it might get nasty or evolve into a rumble, but suddenly the situation is diffused when another Skull comes back from a beer run. With no protection, Weis says that this was one of a few instances that caused me a little fear.
Currently retired and living in Texas, Weis says that since the South Bronx has been totally transformed and in some parts gentrified, looking back at 80 Blocks is almost nostalgic.