When Documentary Filmmaking Gets Dangerous by Peter Nicks of THE FORCE

Film Courage:  I understand that you prefer vérité style instead of the talking head sort of documentaries.  Were you concerned for your own safety [while filming THE FORCE]?  Had you ever seen anyone shot or stabbed in your own life, traveling in the Bay Area?

Peter Nicks:  You know, I’ve been around some pretty hairy situations.  And part of my story was intersecting with law enforcement when I was in college.  I got in trouble.  I got arrested and I ended up serving a year in prison on a drug charge.  But I didn’t have the experience that a lot of young African Americans have. I don’t know if it’s because I am mixed-race? I’m lighter skinned?  The way I dress?  The way I talk?  The way I carry myself, I’m not really sure?

But the first memorable experience I had with law enforcement was them basically saving my life by intersecting me at a very, sort of…where I could have gone either way…where it could have gone either way.

But the first day I was in prison, somebody got their throat cut.  And I was around young black men just like me, but from the other side of the tracks and so I had a very unique kind of coming of age. This is when I was 21. This is you know right at that moment where you are starting to come into your identity.  But I did grow up in the suburbs of Boston and I went to private school.  I went to Howard University. And so I’ve always…(Watch the video on Youtube here).