Street Fighting Man is a character-driven documentary that follows three inner-city men – each a generation apart – as they seek to define their lives in post-industrial Detroit. Deris Solomon is a young single father who wants to leave behind a high-risk life on the streets; Luke Williams is a middle-aged man remodeling a former crack house after being homeless for several years; and James “Jack Rabbit” Jackson is a retired police officer struggling to save his neighborhood from crime after the local police station is dissolved. Through the stories of these men, the film unflinchingly reveals how hard it can be to build a future when everything seems to be crumbling around you.

Detroit’s ills are well-known. Few places have captured the impact of economic decline in this globalized era as the Motor City. Once the manufacturing mecca of the US and the birthplace of the black middle-class, the city is now a shell of its former self. The primary sources of work, the auto and manufacturing industries, are dramatically diminished. Arson, crime, and homicide continue to plague the city. People are leaving Detroit in record numbers. One third of the city’s citizens live below the poverty line. This is a portrait of a city in critical condition, placed within the context of a nation in crisis.

Street Fighting Man pushes beyond these statistics and headlines by sharing the lived experiences of the people who call Detroit home. As Luke collects cans and acquires reclaimed materials to make an old home new again, Jack Rabbit must stand up to violent young criminals who were once children in his neighborhood. Meanwhile, Deris has to decide how he will provide for his daughter: by struggling to get an education, or by selling drugs like many of his peers. For each of these men, it is a war of little battles, often waged at home, at school, or in the streets. And ultimately, their three narratives collapse into one, telling the tale of one man as he attempts to make it through his youth, mid-life, and old age in post-industrial America.

Director’s Statement

After many years visiting Michigan, I became increasingly intrigued with what was happening in Detroit and decided to start looking for stories for my next documentary project there. During my research, I came across a blog post called “Street Fightin’ Man” that described an eccentric “vigilante” policing his own neighborhood on the city’s East Side. That person was James “Jack Rabbit” Jackson and the neighborhood was Jefferson-Chalmers. I found Jack Rabbit’s number online and called him the very same day to discuss the possibility of sharing his story. A couple of weeks later, I was on a plane headed to Detroit.

For over a year, I traveled back and forth, following Jack Rabbit and encountering new characters along the way. I began to realize that I wouldn’t be able to treat these stories with the depth they deserved by coming to Detroit every few weeks. So my wife and I packed our bags and moved to the city. That decision ended up being the most important one I made for this film.

Once I was in Detroit, I had the opportunity to completely embed myself in the lives of the subjects. I spent every day shooting something for the film. I became a fixture in the community, and made many friends, often putting the camera down and spending time with people or doing volunteer work. Given this bond, I feel a personal responsibility to do justice to these stories, and it is this obligation that drives the work on Street Fighting Man.

To learn more about Andrew’s experience in Detroit, follow him on Twitter and read his blog.

A 21 year-old single parent, Deris Solomon, dropped out of high school after being shot in the leg at a football game. After living on the streets, selling drugs, stealing, and shooting dice, Deris gets his girlfriend pregnant. Faced with parenthood, he decides to finish school and build a stable life for his daughter; a life he never had. Deris enrolls in the Young Detroit Builders (YDB), a non-profit that educates high school dropouts and prepares them for their GED. Because his father has been in jail for as long as he can remember, Deris is determined to be present in his daughter’s life. However, when getting an education does not pay the bills, the promise of quick money makes it difficult for Deris to walk away from the hustle of the streets.

Homeless and struggling, 40 year old Luke Williams manages to purchase a former crack house for 1,500 dollars. He lives there with no water or electricity, while gathering materials to repurpose the home. He sleeps on a mattress in the attic, lives on canned or donated food, and showers at a nearby truck stop. His dog Irie is his only constant companion as he undergoes the daunting process of remodeling the abandoned home. He collects cans and takes odd jobs to raise the money required to hang drywall, install doors, repair the plumbing, replace windows, and paint the exterior. Just before Christmas, on the coldest day of the year, tragedy strikes and Luke is faced with a decision: stay and give Detroit another chance or leave and try to start a new life somewhere else.

Everyone in the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood knows Jack Rabbit; an eccentric, 63-year-old retired police officer who used to drive the neighborhood ice cream truck. He has lived in Detroit his entire life, watching as many of his friends and family moved to the suburbs to escape rising taxes, increasing crime, and failing public schools. Nostalgia for a bygone era, when Detroit was home to a burgeoning black middle class, keeps Jack Rabbit firmly rooted in his community despite an influx of drugs, arson, and theft. Since the local police station closed due to budget cuts, crime is on the rise and long-time residents are moving out. Armed with a small pistol, a phone, and a video camera with night vision, Jack Rabbit patrols the neighborhood, intimidates criminals, and responds to calls from neighbors in distress. His mission is simple: keep the neighborhood clean and safe in an effort to discourage families from leaving. However, not everyone in the neighborhood understands or appreciates his efforts. When violence escalates between several young men who grew up on his street, Jack Rabbit discovers that the most challenging battles are often fought within.

Andrew James (Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor) is the award-winning director of Cleanflix, a feature-length documentary about the short-lived sanitized film movement and the Mormon culture that created it. The often funny, and crowd-pleasing film had its world premiere at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival where it garnered praise for its wit, dark irony, and even-handed storytelling. Since its premiere, Cleanflix has screened at more than 30 film festivals and screening series’ worldwide, landing the Best Documentary Award at the 2010 New York United Film Festival. Cleanflix is now available on all digital platforms and DVD. Currently, Andrew is working as an editor on Far Between, a feature-length documentary about the lives of gay Mormons. Andrew resides in Salt Lake City, Utah and has a BA in English Literature from Brigham Young University.

Sara Archambault (Producer) is the Program Director at the LEF Foundation, and a programmer and co-founder of  award-winning nonfiction film series,The DocYard, at the historic Brattle Theatre. Sara has an extensive professional history in production, programming, and foundation work. She was the Executive Director of the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, Managing Director/Producer for Ebb Pod Productions on the Emmy-award winning documentary TRACES OF THE TRADE: A STORY FROM THE DEEP NORTH, and a Producer on Christopher Lydon’s online radio show OPEN SOURCE. She advises, participates on the jury and volunteers with a number of film festivals including her work as Chair of the Advisory Board at the Points North Film Forum of the Camden International Film Festival.

Katie Tibaldi (Producer) is a writer/director/producer born and raised in Michigan. Over the past ten years, she has worked in professional capacities for CBS, MTV, ABC, Bravo, TBS, NBC and as a Manager for the Traverse City Film Festival. Katie has also worked on several short and feature films, including as an Associate Producer for the award-winning documentary, Courting Condi, which screened at over thirty film festivals worldwide and had a limited theatrical release. Katie earned her MFA and BFA degrees from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2007 and 2004, graduating with multiple awards including Best Graduate Short Screenplay in the 2006 Fusion Film Festival. Currently, Katie is a Consulting Producer on Melanie Schiele’s short film Rockaway, a Writer/Producer on the web series, PERKS, and part of the staff of the acclaimed television drama Damages.

Jason Tippet (Editor) recently directed and edited his first feature-length documentary, Only the Young. After premiering at True/False in 2012, Only the Young made the rounds on the festival circuit, drawing wide critical acclaim. The film has been awarded one of the Top Five Films by The National Board of Review, Silver Docs Sterling Award, Camden’s Emerging Cinematic Vision Award, AFI’s Audience Award, and Cinema Eye’s Best Debut Feature. It was also nominated for a 2013 Truer Than Fiction Spirit Award and included in several “best of” lists. The film was picked up by Oscilloscope and POV for broadcast. Jason earned his undergraduate degree at CalArts where he directed his thesis Thompson, a short documentary, which screened at Sundance in 2010 and won the Jury Award at SXSW in 2009.

Joe Vaughn (Executive Producer) is a photographer / cinematographer based in Detroit, Michigan. Joe has been capturing images nationally and internationally for nearly 20 years. Recent projects include working with Eminem, Kid Rock, Mario Batali, Elmore Leonard, The Food Network, HBO, Time Magazine, Light of Hope – Africa, Fast Company, Sports Illustrated and the Times of London. Vaughn is proud to executive produce such a powerful film that takes the unobtrusive point of view of Andrew James and reveals a story that is sincere.

Torben Bernhard (Co-Producer) is a director/cinematographer/editor born and raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan. His feature documentary film, The Sonosopher: Alex Caldiero in Life…in Sound, premiered at Cinequest International Film Festival and received distribution through Dream Garden Press. Torben has directed and produced several critically-acclaimed short and feature documentaries that have screened at film festivals and been selected for distribution. Torben was also recently a member of the design team for the Reinvention Summit, the world’s first virtual conference on storytelling. He is currently working on a set of documentaries called the Lost and Found Series, which explore the theme of “losing and finding” through various subjects and locations, from Utah to Thailand. He is co-founder of OHO Media and performs in Detroit-based hip-hop group Mental Elastic Dynasty, most recently performing at SXSW.

Brady Kimball (Co-Producer) is a native of Salt Lake City, Utah where is he has been involved with a number of non-profit organizations in the film, healthcare, and software communities for the past several years. For the last three years, Brady has served as a Programmer with an emphasis on documentary and international films for the Salt Lake City Film Festival. Most recently turning his passions to film production, Brady is currently producing a series of short documentary films called The Lost And Found Series, which explore what it means to lose something and what we can potentially gain from finding it again.  The series has garnered positive reviews following repeated premieres at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and numerous other festival screenings.

Please feel free to contact us about anything. We would love to hear from you. You can find two ways of reaching us below, as well as a link to our press release and press kit. If you are interested in requesting an interview with the director or wish to learn more about how you can help support the film financially, please contact Sara Archambault. For more general inquiries, please contact Jolyn Schleiffarth.

General Information:
Jolyn Schleiffarth
nancyjolyn@gmail.com

Grants, Donations, Funding:
Sara Archambault
saraarchambault@gmail.com

PRESS KIT • PRESS RELEASE

You can support Street Fighting Man in a number of ways. First, we encourage you to follow the film on Facebook and Twitter  to stay up-to-date with our production. Second, we need your help to spread the word. Please share the trailer with your family, friends, and colleagues. And third, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us complete the film.

Street Fighting Man is fiscally sponsored by the Center for Independent Documentary, a non-profit that collaborates with independent producers to create films and videos on issues of contemporary social and cultural concern. Our partnership with CID gives Street Fighting Man non-profit status, allowing anyone the opportunity to make tax deductible contributions to the film. Without your generous donations, this film would not be possible. Just click on the link to securely donate with your credit or debit card.

 

If you would prefer to send a check, please make it out to: The Center for Independent Documentary, and write Street Fighting Man on the memo line in order to be sure it is applied to our project. Donations should be mailed to:

The Center for Independent Documentary
680 South Main Street
Sharon MA 02067