The latest documentary from Carroll Gardens
filmmaker Vivek Bald is a riveting story of South Asian kids
in Britain who found mainstream popularity by blending their
cultures with hip-hop, reggae and punk music.
In so doing, they created a music style and scene of their own
– but perhaps equally important, they created an outlet to express
their frustration after enduring generations of racism.
"This documentary has, as one of its central elements, politics
and history, but at the same time, it’s a music documentary and
it’s about the music itself and the energy of the music and the
innovation of the music, and the fact that this music – on a
broader cultural level – propelled the South Asian second generation
forward," Bald told GO Brooklyn.
His first documentary, "Taxi-vala/Auto-biography" (1994),
chronicled the experiences and political activism of South Asian-immigrant
taxi drivers in New York City.
Bald said that it was the musicians who blended their music with
politics that he was most drawn to in putting together "Mutiny:
Asians Storm British Music." He also identified with the
Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian musicians in his documentary
because of a similar heritage; his mother is Indian, and shared
classical Indian and folk music with him. (His father is Australian-Scottish.)
"I didn’t have a large second-generation South Asian community
[in California], so I always had my eye on what was going on
in Britain," explained Bald, 37, who moved to New York 14
years ago. "On this side of the Atlantic, I’m on the older
edge of the second generation. I didn’t have others here to look
up to."
In "Mutiny," Bald follows the immigration of South
Asians to Britain, ("They were invited here to clean the
toilets," says one musician), who then settled in communities,
or ghettos, and had children. It’s those children, who grew up
in the ’70s and ’80s, who are the focus of Bald’s film.
"Mutiny" will be shown Aug. 14 as part of the Film
Society of Lincoln Center’s monthly Independents Night. Bald
will host a Q&A after the screening.
The filmmaker has quite a story to tell: he shot the documentary
on digital video over the course of seven years. In researching
the film, he discovered so many new bands, playing a whole new
kind of music – and he became so enamored with it – that he adopted
the moniker DJ Siraiki (pronounced sir-EYE’-kee).
With DJ Rekha, in 1997 he created the floating Mutiny club nights
to promote this new music in New York City. (Bald is also a musician
who has studied the sitar and played drums for a punk rock band.)
Those influential bands featured in the film and in his club
nights include the hard-hitting Fun^Da^Mental as well as Cornershop,
Asian Dub Foundation and Kaliphz.
Bald has spliced their stories together with concert footage,
archival photographs and candid interviews, made possible with
the small-format cameras he used, which, he said, allowed him
to get closer – literally and figuratively – to his subjects
without the distraction of film crews and trunks.
This "Mutiny" must be seen – and heard.
"Mutiny: Asians Storm British Music"
a documentary by Vivek Bald, will be screened at the Film Society
of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater, 165 W. 65th St. at
Broadway, on Aug. 14 at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $9.50, $7 students.
For tickets, call (212) 496-3809. For more information, go to
www.mutinysounds.com.
