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On the film's IMDB page, it is labelled Documentary.
In the press kit, director Damon Russell discusses the film's origin—and backs up Snow's claims:
Back in the summer of '08, I got a voicemail from a drunken Curtis Snow. He had hears I was a TV producer and has gotten my number from a friend of a friend. He was calling to ask for my help with some filming he was doing. A few days later, i ventured down into the BLUFF to meet with Curt. We immediately hit it off and started handing out together. Regularly. Curt introduced me to his crew and his way of life. A few weeks later, he showed me some of the footage he and his friends had shot. There were only a handful og tapes, but where was there blew my mind.
Curt wanted to film more and he wanted me to help him. Initially, I had reservations. But ultimately I decided to work with him,. We starred filming together everyday. Curt was determined that we capture all of the robberies, shootings, police chases and other random madness that happened in the neighborhood.
In the down time from my day job, I started going through all the footage and crafting the story. After a few months, I begin wotrking with an editor, and Snow On Tha Bluff was born.
Color me Intrigued.
Is this film real or is it fiction?
Are they setting up a Paranormal Activity-style hoax?
Is the ambiguity part of the experience, or are fictional elements peppered in to give the footage, and everyone associated with the project "plausible deniability."
In the festival's trademark "war story" notes, Damon's claim trumps all others:
"One of the biggest costs of this production was keeping the cast, especially Curtis, out of jail. There were at least five instances when I had to bail Curt out, including the one time when he and I got arrested together. Luckily that didn't hold us up too much...and as time went on, we got better at running away from the police
Before heading to the snowy heights of Park City, Damon—whose other credits include the acclaimed basketball doc The Cage, as well as television production credits for A&E's "The First 48" and "Flip This House," and MTV's "Made"—answered some questions about the film.
1. Discuss your background. Where do you live and work now. What are your connections to Atlanta?
I grew up in Atlanta and went to Georgia State University. After graduation I moved away to London and then New York City. I’ve shot a lot of Docu-reality TV and I’ve always done my own films on the side.
I don’t really live anywhere. I move around a lot for work.
But my family is in ATL so I am here as much as I can be.
Is Snow on tha Bluff Bluffin?
2. Do you consider the film a documentary with narrative embellishments or a narrative with some documentary flourishes?
The film is for the most part documentary. There is not a single actor in the film.
3. The key is the footage that Curt and his crew shot on their own. Discuss what inspired them to shoot footage of (alleged) illegal activities. Had they considered the potential consequences?
People like Curt who live that Dopeboy lifestyle are usually dead or in jail by 25, so I don’t think they had a long-term plan for the footage. I just know that Curt really wanted to document his neighborhood and way of life.
4. It is my understanding that the police have asked for footage from the film for the purpose of investigating crimes. How have you addressed these inquiries?
Yes, we were contacted by an Investigator from the Atlanta Police Department who had gotten a copy of part of the movie that we were passing around. They were investigating a string of home invasion robberies. However, to protect myself and everyone in the movie, I probably shouldn’t say much more than that.
5. Your shoot found you and the crew in other real life confrontations with police. What was the most dangerous "real" moment you faced while shooting?
While shooting this movie, I had pistols pulled on me, someone tried to run me over with a car, Curt and I got arrested, we were pulled over and searched by the police dozens of times. It’s hard to narrow it down to the single most dangerous moment because everyday was so crazy.
6. In your opinion, how much of the thug attitude is authentic vs. constructed? In other words, is this a situation of the tail wagging the dog? Has hip-hop culture—music, videos, movies, and television shows—created this aesthetic? Is this why it is so easy to blur the lines between being real and being in character? Or are these representations all a 100% reflection of the reality?
Admittedly, sometimes in rap songs and music videos the “Thug Life” thing gets distorted.
But people like Curtis Snow are real. He really was born with crack in his system because both of his parents really did smoke dope.
He really has robbed people, and sold dope, and served time in prison.
And I guess when people go through stuff like that they want to rap about it and flaunt it, because it defines them. It speaks to your question earlier about why Curt and his friends would want to film themselves, I guess they figure rather than tell you about in a rap song, they’d rather just show you.
And that kinda sums up our movie, Snow On Tha Bluff.
7. For those of us not making the trip to Park City, how can we see Snow On Tha Bluff?
The agents representing our film are in a battle nto try to take our film off of XBox Live. So I don’t know whether it will be available or not.
(Ed note: as of this writing, the announcement that XBox Live as on was still up the Snow on Tha Bluff Web site
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Here's the link. Famous hip hop photographer ZachWolfe.com came out to the hood for a day of shooting in the blistering ATL heat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMrW4SNJ2c0&feature=player_embedded
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http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/14307848#utm_campaign=twitter.com&utm_source=14307848&utm_medium=social
awesome interview #snowonthabluff
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In the movie Snow on tha Bluff, a man is lying in the street bleeding from a knife wound.
This is the behind the scenes story of how : "Frank Got Stabbed".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjJZmSFs6pE
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The critically acclaimed, ‘Snow on tha Bluff’ is a surreal edgy docudrama based on the life and crimes of Atlanta crack drug dealer Curtis Snow. The film is completely shot in the crime ridden and very dangerous section of west, Atlanta, GA, called the “Bluff” which stands for “Better Leave U (you) Fool”, this seems to add even more authenticity to a film, whose credibility is being debated across the country.
Former producer for 'The First 48” crime drama on AE, reality television director Damon Russell has mastered the ability of combining fiction and non-fiction to the degree that it is almost impossible to know the difference in his work. Whether you come away from viewing this film believing it is either real or staged, most are in agreement that this is still an excellent piece of documentary work.
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Curtis Snow, the main character in this film is a very cunning and complex individual, he is always plotting his next deal and/or heist, yet at the same time he displays an enormity of heart; particularly when he is speaking about his son and family.
During one of the most disturbing scenes in the film, is seeing Curtis cutting up crack cocaine in front of his toddler son, while describing his same or similar young life to his audience. You then are shown Curtis being forewarned by his grandmother about the evil spoils of his current life in drug dealing. “There’s nothing in the streets but trouble, and death,” she says, “there’s just one step between you and death: you never know when you’re makin’ that last step.” Curtis seems to take it in one ear and out the other.
On the flipside of the coin, he is breaking into rival drug gangs homes and stealing all their drugs and money; setting off a series of constant retaliation attempts between he and his adversaries.
Most importantly this documentary narrative also shows its viewers the reality of a drug dealer’s life. It doesn’t boast the typical Hollywood perspective that’s glorified in today’s music, movies or television attempts. It portrays the violence, the degradation and particularly the loss that most drug criminals deal with “everyday, all day” as Curtis states in the film.
The story begins with 3 unsuspecting college students scouting around for drugs before heading off for their spring break vacation. After approaching Snow to score various drugs for their trip, Snow cons his way into their car and proceeds to rob them of all their money and belongings which includes their video camera, from this point the documentary really takes off!
Once he scores the video camera he decides to use it to document his everyday crime ridden life. He documents every step, from robbing other dealers who infiltrate his territory dealing drugs, as well as, his constant attempted escape from the Georgia police department.
At first, I thought this movie was scripted or at least a staged directed film, based on re-enactments of real life happenings. Yet as the story continued, it became more and more clear to me that this was an authentic live action glimpse into Curtis Snow’s actual life.
Flashing before my eyes was a set of realistic frames taken from Curtis’ complex everyday life as a modern day drug dealer.
He states to the person he hands the camera to during filming, “Never stop filming, no matter what!” Snow with Russell’s direction takes its viewers on a roller coaster ride of emotions. At the Atlanta Film Festival, some viewers became so overwhelmed that a heated altercation broke out in the theater.
Hurriedly, Snow and Russell appeared on one of the local news programs the next day exclaiming that the altercation, although due to the explicit subject matter, was no more than just a few over zealous screeners that got out of hand. Snow also went on to explain that ‘Snow on tha Bluff’ was just a dramatization and he was just an actor trying to get to a million dollars legitimately? His statements seem to add even more fodder to the doubt surrounding the film. This journalist believes it may have been a screen for law enforcement.
Russell has stated in several interviews, “that during filming someone tried to run him over with their car, pistols were pulled on him and he was arrested by Georgia police. In addition, Curtis was arrested 5 times during filming.”
Damon Russell’s background in reality television might explain his attraction, as well as, skill at making this story seem like non-fiction with a fictional twist. This journalist believes you should view the film and be your own judge.
The film’s underlying theme is the reality of the life of an urban drug dealer’s survival. One of Snow’s most poignant statements in the film is, “Well drugs kill now, but at the same time, , they also help you out, they pay your rent if you ain't got no job.”
The sad reality is that this seems to be the only hope for survival that most people in our ghettos have, especially in today’s economy. When Snow’s baby mama talks to him about making money the right way, he tells her, “Ain’t no right or no wrong way—there’s the need way.”
Since its world premiere at the Slam Dance Movie Festival,‘Snow on tha Bluff’ has won “Best Narrative Feature” at the Chicago Underground Film Festival and "Best Editing" at the Brooklyn Film Festival. Director Damon Russell, Curtis Snow and Producer Chris K have brought to its viewers a documentary narrative to be reckoned with. They take you on a 80 minute journey into Curtis Snow’s sordid crime ridden life, and whether this film is fact or fiction these three gentlemen have produced a wonderful realistic piece of cinema that has caused a commotion of debate all over the country.
Stay tuned for our upcoming interview with Director Damon Russell and Producer Chris K.
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Continue reading on Examiner.com Snow on tha Bluff: a glimpse into a drug dealer’s reality - New York underground | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/underground-in-new-york/snow-on-a-bluff-a-glimpse-into-a-drug-dealer-s-reality-review#ixzz1VIg9k0UK
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The line separating documentary and narrative film aesthetics has never been more porous than it is now. Damon Russell is a filmmaker whose work lives right on that line. The Atlanta, Georgia native, who shuttles between Atlanta and New York as projects come and go, made a short film that was partially shot in the notorious western Atlanta ghetto, “The Bluff.” After seeing Russell’s film, a Bluff resident named Curtis Snow, whose livelihood revolves around armed robbery and drug pushing, sought out Russell to make a film about his life. Snow on Tha Bluff, which world premiered at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival before making stops in Maryland and Brooklyn, is as authentic a document of the life of a young, black, crack-dealing single parent as you will ever see in any festival’s narrative competition. At first glance, it’s nearly impossible to know how much of the film is staged or not; it opens with Snow stealing a camcorder from some unsuspecting tourists slumming for drugs after a stop at Stone Mountain. The rest of this “found footage” movie is ostensibly shot on that camera.
“He had some footage already that I wanted to incorporate and there wasn’t any direction at first,” says Russell. “I would just start filming whatever was around that would happen. We’d be standing somewhere and then an ambulance would zoom by with five cop cars behind it, so we’d take everyone and follow them and just start filming whatever was going on in the neighborhood. As things progressed we started to see a story.” Light on narrative and heavy on incident, Snow on Tha Bluff is at turns exhilarating, comical and infuriating as its anti-hero proves to be as clever and resourceful as he is violent and irresponsible. Ultimately trapped in a brutal system of recrimination and victimhood, the film’s end takes us full circle, with Snow exhibiting the first glimmer of desire to share his story.
“Curtis got arrested five times during the process of shooting this movie,” says Russell, who was arrested with him at one point and incorporated actual footage of Snow being released from prison into the film’s narrative. “Being released from prison, having to take care of his child — these were all things Curtis was dealing with. And I had to put them into the movie.” The Georgia State University alumni, who sites Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Pusher trilogy and reality television as influences, plans to keep making films that skirt the line between “reality” and “fiction.” He’s currently at work on a horror film using many of the same techniques with his partner Shawn Christensen — whose excellent sci-fi short, Brink, he produced — under their Fuzzy Logic banner. — Brandon Harris
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With their debut film Snow On Tha Bluff, Curtis Snow and Damon Russell present a disturbing side of Atlanta that’s often ignored. Filmed similar to The Blair Witch Project and grittier than “The Wire,” cameras follow Snow as he deals drugs, do stick-up jobs and search for ways to raise his infant son.
While several graphic scenes could allude to the glorification of drug dealing and violence, Snow and Russell insist that the narrative film serves as a testimonial. The two recently sat down with rolling out magazine to discuss their project. –amir shaw
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