Last Wednesday night, about 80 students gathered in Pearson 104 to view a pre-post-production version of Faith, Drugs, Rock & Roll, a documentary directed by Adrian Baschuk and Nicole Davis, one of his partners in Tensions Pictures, Inc.
The film, which will soon enter post-production, focuses on 22-year-old Eliezer "Elie" Neufeld, a high school dropout and former hip-hop producer who becomes involved in Miami's drug underworld, but, at the same time, also has a strong faith in Judaism.
"He was a renegade, a rebel - the son of a rabbi who went to an all-Jewish high school, dropped out, got his GED," said Baschuk, who shot the film prior to starting work for CNN last year. "He went very far from his roots - I mean, he was in a video with Mr. Cheeks! But then he delved into his faith."
The documentary chronicles the two weeks leading up to Neufeld's trial for ecstasy possession and conspiracy to distribute, focusing on questions of belief and doubt as well as ones of guilt and innocence.
It also highlights the corruption and shortcomings of the criminal justice system. "Basically, law enforcement wheels and deals within the criminal justice system," Baschuk said. "People will give up a name for a reduction in sentence - something that the enforcement system doesn't like to talk about, and especially federal agents don't like to talk about."
After the 50-minute film ended, Baschuk asked his audience for feedback and answered questions on subjects such as his decision to include footage of himself and co-director Nicole Davis in the film: "When I write my story on, say, the Kobe Bryant case, I write my story and send it in to a place called The Row, which is the executive producers, and they rewrite the script, if there's anything that's not objective," he said. "You're just spewing facts, you're not giving analysis. So I wanted to show myself in it for you guys to engage in the process as well, to see behind-the-scenes."
When asked if that behind-the-scenes involvement changed his perceptions of the case, Baschuk replied that "being 22 and facing 20 years in prison - that does something to your soul, I think, and having contact with Elie, a connection to him, it hit me as well."
Baschuk also discussed the film's cost. "It's become noticeably less expensive to make films like these," he said. "With all the equipment, travel, shooting, I'd put it at about 10 grand." Picking up his camera, he added that "now you can buy a digital camera like I have here for $5,000, and it shoots just like film, so [making films] doesn't have to be so institutionalized."
Once post-production on Faith, Drugs, Rock & Roll is complete, Baschuk will shop it around to networks like HBO and Showtime, as well as submit it to film festivals.
The screening was part of the ExCollege's 40th anniversary programming. ExCollege Associate Director Howard Woolf, who introduced Baschuk, said that the 80 students in attendance were a record-high turnout for an event taking place during the first week of classes.
