By Darlene Donloe
Kristian Hill is
a Los Angeles-based filmmaker who hails from Detroit and is on his way to the
Cannes Film Festival to screen his latest documentary, Electric Roots: The Detroit Sound Project.
Just how he got from
Detroit to Cannes is a story unto itself, but suffice it to say, he put in the time
and the work.
Hill, 44,
directed, wrote and executive produced the film along with his partner,
Executive Producer Jennifer Washington and Director of Photography Moses
Mitchell.
Kristian Hill
The film, which
is now gaining interest on the world stage, is about the power of music and how
it continues to build a bridge between the people of Detroit and South Africa.
Hill shot the
film in a way that puts to audience right into the action, creating a non-stop party
atmosphere that is palpable. The audience is immersed into Africa’s Capetown Electronic Music Festival where they can bear witness to the genius of some of
the world’s biggest DJs and producers, like Black Coffee and Richie Hawtin.
Black Coffee
Niskerone
The film
features DJs Black Coffee, Richie Hawtin, Esa Williams, Niskerone, Digital
Rockit, Killer Robot with special appearances by Juan Atkins and Model
500.
Hill grew
up with Atkins, who is recognized as one of the innovators of Detroit techno.
Electric Roots has caught fire since it began playing
the film festival circuit and since receiving an NAACP Image Award nod.
http://vimeo.com/88412882
Currently
the film is 25 minutes in length, but Hill, who has 18 years of
film-making/editing experience under his belt, has plans to expand the
documentary into a feature length with a more defined focus: the impact of
Detroit Techno on electronic music worldwide.
Since 2000, Detroit has held the annual
Detroit Electronic Music Festival, attracting more than 100,000 people to the
city each year. Cape Town has the Cape Town Electronic Music Festival, which
serves as the film’s backdrop.
When you talk to
Hill, the passion in his voice says it all. This is a project that’s been in the back of his mind for
many years. He said he has always thought “outside of the box and outside of
the neighborhood”. He’s always wanted to “explore not to reinvent.”
Sheri Deruise Hill and Kristian Hill
Hill, who is
married to Sheri Deruise Hill, has had a long, zealous love affair with
music. He remembers fondly an encounter
he had with music when he was in the eighth grade. His older brother, Reuben,
who was a record collector, surprised Hill by bringing a couple of his friends
to DJ at his eighth grade graduation party.
Right then, Hill
was bitten by the bug. It was then that he was exposed to the art of mixing
records. There was no turning back. He was smitten.
“Music took over
my life from then on,” said Hill, who has a Master of Science in Urban Policy
“I was hooked.”
This isn’t
Hill’s first time at the rodeo. He received an NAACP Image Awards
nomination for Postcards: Mandela, a special feature that aired on the
Africa Channel. In 2010 came the critically acclaimed documentary
and television mini-series, Icons AmongUs: Jazz In The Present Tense. The doc was cited by the American Film
Institute as an example of film-making excellence.
Hill’s credits
also include his Emmy nominated editorial projects which have been featured on
ESPN, The NFL Network, HBO, BET and SITV, just to name a few. Some of his most
notable clients include Warner Bros. Records, Overbrook Entertainment (Will,
Jaden and Willow Smith in partnership with Justin Bieber), Simmons-Lathan Media
Group and NBC-TV Networks.
Last February, after Electric Roots screened at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, the film was accepted into the Short Film
Corner at Cannes 2014.
The 67th Cannes Film Festival, the most prestigious international
festival for cinema, takes place May 14-20 on the French Riviera.
I caught up with
Hill before he left for Cannes to talk about his career and Electric Roots, which is poised to
catapult him into the international limelight.
DD: Tell me how
“Electric Roots: the Detroit Sound Project” came about.
KH: Three years
ago we started. It was during the time I was home in Detroit taking care of
mother, who eventually passed. I got antsy about doing a story on something
positive about the city. When I go to Detroit I have an amazing time. I have a
point of view unlike some people. Jennifer Washington was at a party and we
talked about doing a project on Detroit. We stayed in Detroit. While there I
filmed a lot of stuff. I would
film hip-hop artists, strip clubs and girl fights. It was a short I did on
Allan Ester, a DJ in Detroit that made us realize this was something we needed
to do.
DD: Why did you
need to talk to him?
KH: We needed to
explore the Detroit sound. We interviewed Al and went into his world. That was
three years ago.
DD: So, where
have you been to spread the word about the sound?
KH: We’ve been
to Tokyo, Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Russia, South Africa, all in the name of
Detroit techno and house music. The exploration of the sound has taken us all
over the world. Electric Roots is the
Africa chamber of our trip. Reflecting the African chamber of the trip was an
idea that Jennifer (Washington) came up with.
Richie Hawtin
DD: Lets talk
about Richie Hawtin because you feature him in the film.
KH: He’s a young
man from England. He fell in love with music that in its infancy wasn’t even
called techno. He would travel across the border from Windsor (Canada) to
Detroit. Now he’s one of the leading techno artist in the world. We went to South
Africa to film him. He was representing Detroit at a festival. To film Richie
while he’s repping Detroit and spreading the word – was something we wanted to
document.
DD: When did you
go to South Africa?
KH: Went to
South Africa on Feb. 11, 2013. That trip was a 27-day trip. We also went and
followed Black Coffee, a leading South African personality. We followed him in Johannesburg
and in Soweto. We also featured Esa Williams and Niskerone. They are the
central figures in the first part of Electric
Roots.
DD: While in
South Africa, did you get a chance to talk to people about Nelson Mandela?
KH: It was hard
not to turn cameras on to the legacy of Nelson Mandela. That’s where Postcards: Mandela aired last year on
the Travel Channel. That’s where that whole thing came from. We took our
stories while over there and told a few different stories on our impression of what
Africa is today. Our trip morphed into a quest to document modern Africa in a
way that related to people like me in the states. We have a misconception that
Africans are behind in the times. Their lifestyle can’t be as opulent as ours.
We went to document Richie, the music scene and a wider range of modern Africa.
DD: What are
your thoughts on Detroit being the birthplace of the Motown Sound as well as
Techno House Music?
KH: Because of
our work on the Detroit Sound Project,
I am now getting the opportunity to tell Detroit’s story on a bigger stage.
Man, what Berry Gordy did was phenomenal. Detroit is the home of Motown, but
it’s also the home to the most electronic music in the world. Detroiters have
talent. Berry Gordy took his music and created his own life from it. Detroiters have taken portions of Motown
and Berry Gordy’s business plan and applied it to themselves. It’s great to
know that Detroit techno music today has allowed people to create their own
economic engines.
Motown left, but
Detroit didn’t die. Detroit never stopped being a musical Mecca – even though
Motown left.
DD: Aren’t you
working on a Motown project?
KH: In regards
to Motown, I’m doing the Motown 25 commemorative DVD. Because of the work we
did on Electric Roots and Postcards, I was invited to work with
the production company doing the DVD for Time Life. The DVD will be reissued.
You will have more value added material related to that show and the history of
Motown.
DD: Your work is now garnering you more
work.
KH: I’m now
being invited into Hollywood productions about Detroit musical history. Not only
Motown but the legacy of Detroit.
Detroit is one of our nation’s musical arteries and lifelines. To be
able to be a curator of that history and legacy is an honor. It comes from hard
work. Jennifer and I started three and a half years ago chasing DJs all over
the world.
DD: Projects like yours cost money. How was
it funded?
KH: Well, one
way we did it was to fundraise on Facebook. We got $4,000 on Facebook in 10
days to go to Japan to film Derek May.
He did a concert for 20,000 people.
DD: Why is this an important story for you
to tell?
KH: It shows
that music is the bridge to cultures around the world. It’s also the tool that we
can use to disenfranchise or to realize a dream. You see that in the film. You
see how Black Coffee is able to impact other people’s lives.
DD: Talk about
Esa Williams.
KH: Esa Williams
grew up in a colored Africa. After his father’s murder, he turned to his
father’s passion to become who he is today. Stories like that is what we’re
telling on the road. There are inspirational stories to be told. It’s good to connect
him to a Richie Hawtin. They overcame
some things – that’s what we want to show. They turned their lives into what
they envisioned.
Kristian Hill
DD: Tell me what
Techno house music does to and/or for you?
KH: I’m a huge
fan of House Music to a degree as a teen I was a DJ. Steve Dunbar and Al Ester
dj’d my 8th grade party. They opened me up to music beyond what I
heard on a regular night. I would make trips to Chicago to buy records. I would
tell my mother I was going to a party and drive to Chicago. I have a friend
named Juan Atkins. He’s a childhood friend who was making his own music and sound.
It merged with house music. Juan coined this music. He grew up around the block
from me. I love Juan and the music he makes.
DD: What were
the challenges of putting this project together?
KH: Money is
definitely a part of it. Also, trying to attract DJs to work with you. You
can’t appear like a YouTuber. Everything I do is not going to be on YouTube. If I film you in 2012 and you don’t see
anything in two years people think you stopped working on it. My goal is to see
the stories on the screen.
DD: Any other
obstacles?
KH: Before we
did Postcards, we did an even bigger
story on our trip to South Africa. The powers that be at one point didn’t think
the music was important at first. You can run into non-believers working on
this. Some people don’t know techno came from Detroit. Some people in America
don’t know music is still alive beyond rap and pop. That’s enough for us to tell a story about Detroit on the
international stage.
DD: What is your
hope for your project?
KH: In the
beginning I hoped we could make a feature film on Detroit techno and house
music. I don’t think it’s changed. I wanted Electric
Roots to attract like-minded people to us.
DD: You are
going to Cannes. That’s huge.
KH: We’re going
to Cannes to show this film to any and everybody so we can raise anywhere from
$250,000-$500,000 to finish the feature and make some more trips, which would
allow us to make a film to go into theaters. Our goal is to make a feature documentary
on the scale of Searching for Sugar Man
and A Band Called Death and Woodstock.
DD: So what more do you need for your film?
KH: We just need
time to get the heart and emotion of the film. We want to make it a cinematic
gem.
DD: What’s the
most important part about being a filmmaker?
KH: As a
filmmaker every film I’ve done has been something that has taken people
somewhere. That’s what I want to do. That’s what I like about film-making.
DD: You’ve been
making the film festival circuit.
What’s up next?
KH: Right now we’re
up for the Seattle International Film Festival and the Urban International FilmFestival. In June we’ll be in Nashville meeting with distributors and
television networks. We will be pitching Electric
Roots for a broadcast partner to buy into as a series. A feature film is
something we‘re hoping to do as well. The feature film will deal
specifically with Detroit artists and their lives. Detroit will be much more a forefront. The people you
meet will be Detroiters.
DD: Do you have
a title for the film?
KH: Yeah, it’s tentatively
titled: God Said Give Them Beat Machines.
DD: How would
you describe yourself?
KH: I’m a
community based filmmaker, but on an international stage and with an
international point of view.
I love what I do.
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