The creators of ‘Black Males/Black Dreams: Climbing to the Mountaintop,’ Susan Hynds and Larry Elin, talked about their collaboration, the challenges of making a movie without a budget and their passion for the subject.

The Daily Orange: When did this project start and how did you get involved?

Susan Hynds: The project started about six years ago when I was thinking I would be retiring from the university. I wanted to take a few classes, so I audited a class with Larry Elin. I decided I’d want to make documentary films instead of retiring. I made a short 15-minute documentary about Wallace and McCrone. So we talked about it and decided that the issue of African-American males in society was a much larger issue than these two people.

What was the most difficult part of making this movie?

I think because we had no budget, we had to work to get footage. For instance, we couldn’t pay for B-roll. We wanted to put a CNN clip in, but we couldn’t pay for it. It was $180 a minute. It was difficult because we had to make all of the film ourselves. We had to collaborate and because of that it took us four years.

What do you believe students and educators can get out of this movie?

I think we need to look carefully at those kids we see standing on street corners. We automatically make an assumption about them. This is not to say that these kids are always going to be model citizens, but we need to change our assumptions about why they are there.

 

The Daily Orange: How did the use of two disciplines — education and television, radio and film —benefit the making of this film?

Larry Elin: We both brought different competencies to the process. Susan was by far the content expert and the person with the vision of what this story could be, but I brought the access to cameras and knowledge on how to use them. I couldn’t have made the film without her, and I don’t think she could have made the film without me.

What sparked your interest in this subject matter?

When Susan showed me the movie she made in class, at the time my wife and I had foster sons and had one then. Most of our foster sons have been African-American males, young, in school and struggling. So her topic was one that I could identify with, and I got just as passionate as she was about the problem and how important it was to solve this problem.

For people who wouldn’t normally see these issues firsthand, will this film bring the city closer to home?

Yes, I think so. Part of the goal of this film was to expose people to people that they would never meet on their own because of where they live, who they are, what kind of lifestyle they have, socioeconomic status and the color of their skin. Sometimes you can accomplish more diversity just by head count, but what works even better is to change people’s state of mind.

Published on January 24, 2012 at 12:00 pm