Documentary and Film Fest tell street stories

The most telling moment in the new documentary "Audio Rebellion" comes near the end. Members of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee ( P.O.C.C.), along with a group of Chicago residents, square off in city hall against a wall of police and city officials. Behind the police stands a phalanx of reporters and cameramen from major news outlets, scribbling furiously and recording the scene from the official's point of view. While most of the cameras are trained on the activists and community members, one lone crew stands with the people, recording events from their perspective.

This is the crew from "The Block Report", an Oakland based grassroots political radio show, and Audio Rebellion is their story.

"You wanna talk about being on the front line? See that right there, that's the front lines!" shouts JR Valrey, the show's Executive Producer and Director of Audio Rebellion. With media outlets around the nation being regularly criticised for "armchair journalism" and running news stories generated by marketing agencies, the staff at The Block Report prides itself on being on those front lines.

Shows are often taped in the field at public events, prisons and protests nationwide and feature discussions with respected activists, political prisoners and politicians. The documentary follows Valrey and his team across the Unites States from the south side of Chi-town to Watts to the most devastated regions of New Orleans 9th Ward-places most mainstream news outlets rarely cover without a murder story.

The entire movie carries a sense of urgency, from the opening scene at Chicago's city hall, (where US Congressman Bobby Rush is caught with his foot in his mouth during an embarrassing press conference,) to Watsonville California, where political rapper Immortal Technique rallies a crowd of Latino supporters against the current administration. This is the side of radical politics that doesn't make the 6 o'clock news.

Audio Rebellion is a look at one group of activists who are taking that responsibility to heart. The movie screens Saturday January 6th at the Roxie in San Francisco as part of the "Visionz From the Streetz Film Festival" organized by The Block Report. I talked to JR Valrey about the Festival and the history and purpose of the Block Report.


KB: What is the POCC: Block Report Radio?
JR: POCC: Block Report Radio is a radio show that addresses the political and cultural needs and advances of our people (necessary) for survival. We have talked to people like Bonnie Williams, the former wife of Tookie Williams, political prisoners Mumia Abu Jamal and Imam Jamil Al-Amin, Ramona Africa from the MOVE organization, San Quentin deathrow inmate Kevin Cooper, dead prez, Digable Planets, Brotha J from X Clan, Chuck D. and Flavor Flav of Public Enemy, Mos Def, Herbie Hancock, US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Akua Njeri, a Black Panther and the widow of Chairman Fred Hampton, and these are just a few.
POCC: Block Report Radio was founded in '03 to represent our community in our own voice instead of that European taught way where everybody tries to sound like KCBS, KQED, or KALW. We speak in a voice that is recognizable to our people who are the hoods all across the world. You don't have to be a UC Berkeley graduate to keep up with what is being said and the tempo in which we're saying it. We speak in Black people's dialect.
The show was created to get out the news in our community in a raw and uncut voice where we talk about what we think is important rather than have some white boss telling us what's important for our community. POCC: Block Report Radio is also one of the media arms to the POCC.

KB: What is the POCC?
JR: The Prisoners of Conscience Committee is an international revolutionary organization, (and when I say revolutionary I mean we do not get government funding or grants or back the status quo) that speaks to the needs of the Black community, in much the same way that the Black Panther Party did. We have created campaigns to address issues in our community regarding police terrorism, land grabs, chemical and biological warfare i.e crack, heroin, and AIDS, the mass incarceration of Black people, and Black political prisoners. It was founded behind enemy lines while Chairman Fred Hampton Jr was a political prisoner, then was established outside of the concentration camp walls in '03 after he was unleashed in '01.

KB: Are there other shows you can think of that are doing this kind of work?
JR: Divine Forces on KPFK in LA, SOS Radio on KPFP in Houston and SOS productions on WRFG in Atlanta are all similar, but we are the only ones who deal mainly with political topics.

KB: In your opinion, what's the biggest challenge indy media makers face?
JR: Promotion, letting the people know that we're there and getting them off their Clear Channel. A lot of times, due to lack of resources, indy media doesn't have the promotion and community presence of big stations. Clear Channel stations have a presence in the community because they have more money to fund street teams, vans etc.

KB: What's the goal of the film festival?
JR: The purpose of the Festival is to integrate the different forms of media that is coming out of the Black community. Some of it, isn't fit to be showed at
your average festival, so we created the "Visionz From the Streetz Hood Film Festival" to profile the work of low budget or no budget independent media makers and celebrate the talent.

KB: Why is this festival special? Is there anything else like this that you know of?
JR: We are not playing into the class divide of what signifies a flick. If you put your work together on a cheap computer but it has some type of message, we're interested in seeing it. Although all of the movies in the festival do not push a positive message, they are all meant to create dialog. It's special because there has not been a Black run film festival that reaches out specifically to young people in the hood that create media. The SF Film Festival is for more manicured films. A few years ago there was the Hip Hop Film Festival, but our festival is not just about Hip Hop films, ours is about hood films which can include Hip Hop films but are not limited to Hip Hop films.

KB: What do the directors involved think?
JR: They love it, because they are not the only ones doing work to promote their flicks. Its a team effort and not just an individual one.

KB: Are there many avenues for screenings in the area for this type of work?
JR: We have about 4 or 5 more places where we plan to take this in the Bay, but we also plan to take it to Sacramento, Santa Cruz, LA, San Diego, Long Beach, Portland, and Vancouver just to speak on the West Coast.

Note: POCC: Block Report Radio is played regularly on over 20 radio stations across the U.S. including the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, D.C. Gary Indiana, Atlanta, and Houston. It can also be heard on hiphopwarreport.com, myspace.com/blockreportradio and internationally on Mumia Abu Jamal's weekly commentary CD that goes to 110 radio stations worldwide and can be found online at prisonradio.org.
The Visionz From the Streetz Hood Film Festival runs January 6th and 7th at the Roxie in San Francisco. For more information on the festival, the show or the movie call 510-395-2341or go to http://www.myspace.com/blockreportfilm.