NYS Music 20​14

Tag: documentary

  • Film Review: ‘What’s In My Baggie?’ a Look into the Bunk Police and the ever Growing Drug Culture

    For years there has been a significant presence of drug use at live music concerts and festivals. Rules and regulations may be placed in attempts to crack down on the buying and selling of illegal substances, but like it or not the drugs do not stop flowing. Up until the past few years there was really no safe way to know what you were purchasing. The main idea behind the “Bunk Police” is that people are going to take drugs no matter how many rules, laws or restrictions the general public are given. If there is going to be drug use, why not make sure it’s safe?

    Firefly Festival 2013

    Recognizing the extreme lack of awareness with recreational drug use, Bunk Police founder Adam Auctor took a near death experience to realize that life is short and should be handled with the utmost care. Up until very recently Auctor has remained completely anonymous, not out of fear for repercussions through law enforcement, but instead the backlash from drug dealers for taking customers and money out of their pockets. In some ways Auctor is a true revolutionary amongst the music scene for creating a way to reduce the overdoses and deaths and increase the knowledge when consuming potentially harmful chemicals. No matter how seasoned or knowledgeable one may think they are in the world of illicit substance, it only takes one bad batch to put you over the edge. The Bunk Police is setting out to eliminate that constant “what if”. In some ways The Bunk Police has completely revolutionized music festivals world-wide.

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    The documentary “What’s In My Baggie?” gives a first hand look from the perspective of patrons, law enforcement and members of the Bunk Police. Numerous times throughout the documentary you are shown many individuals who purchased what they thought to be Molly or MDMA, and after testing their substance with their Bunk Police test kit found they had Bath Salts or an unrecognizable drug. Recently national news has picked up on the unsafe conditions of music festivals nation wide. From Electric Zoo to Bonnaroo, there are overdoses and deaths and there is no shortage of finger-pointing. Festivals that have been around for years are slowly slipping into the shadows after they make national headlines for having patrons over dose and die on what was thought to be MDMA. People are now beginning to question if music festivals are even safe to begin with. Many believe that by handing out drug testing kits you are potentially influencing individuals to take drugs, where in reality by taking away the drug testing kits the room for fatality and injury due to substance use is immeasurable. One way or another people need to know what they are putting into their bodies. At any given point an individual could find any drug they wanted any where they wanted almost instantaneously. This is why the work that The Bunk Police has done with its readily available test kits is astronomically huge for the safety of patrons at music festivals.

    From start to finish the documentary is nothing short of phenomenal. It does a great job of getting a broad spectrum of different perspectives as well as showing the ins and outs of drug trade throughout festivals. It is refreshing to finally see these issues that are plaguing the music scene be brought to light to hopefully raise questions and awareness to the drug culture that is ever-growing.

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYzmZ1IU4zY]

  • Film Review: ‘No Cameras Allowed’

    Sneaking into music festivals is a dick move. Artists and patrons pay to attend while vendors, staff and volunteers go to great lengths to make the festival run with as few preventable glitches as possible. And a (very) few try to attend without contributing either through money, performing or factoring into the machine that runs a music festival. No one wants to be glorified for sneaking into a festival, but James Marcus Haney thrusts himself into the spotlight in his documentary No Cameras Allowed.

    No Cameras AllowedHaney claims his film is “a love letter to these festivals, in a way. And it shows them in such a great light that my goal is that people will see my film and then go and experience live music on their own.” And while there might be some who are inspired to go to these festivals as a result, how many will follow his lead and sneak in, use old/fake wristbands and not support the artists by buying a ticket? It’s the hardest aspect of the film to get around – is Haney doing damage to future festivarians or is he just pointing out flaws that need to be patched?

    Along the way he gets to see some incredible music – some of it onstage and in the huddle before the headlining set (with Mumford and Sons) – and later goes on tour at an age that makes you envious of his youth and jealous of his opportunities. Sure I went to festivals at his age but damn he makes it thrilling and with the added degree of difficulty of greater surveillance, with which he gets away with it, usually.

    The film is a double-edged sword with breaking into festivals, and while it is not Almost Famous for 21st century, you do get some nods to the Cameron Crowe film. With a good soundtrack – Jay-Z, Young the Giant, Mumford – No Cameras Allowed follows a journey of a 20-something through the world of music festivals. Haney doesn’t set an example that anyone should follow, but it is interesting that only large festivals were the appeal. Sure, they have the big name, but smaller festivals not being shown is both a good thing and a snub. The best festivals aren’t always the largest names, and that is proved year in, year out. Yet showing how to sneak into festivals that live year to year on ticket sales and not extensive corporate sponsorships would have been a slap in the face. Overall Haney snuck into 50 festivals but we only see the large ones. It would be interesting to see what was left on the cutting room floor/recycle bin and what didn’t make the cut.

    We get to see Haney make his way into 4 large festivals – Coachella, Bonnaroo, Glastonbury and Austin City Limits, documenting them along the way and getting his photos into Rolling Stone while blowing off his graduation from USC to follow Mumford and Sons on the Railroad Revival Tour. The thrill is palpable and you may end up rooting for Haney, or maybe just surprised he got through security so easily, so many times and caught just as well. The relationships back at home are tested between friend and girlfriend.

    Is Haney a dick? Is he a millennial getting what he thinks he is owed? Is it just for the thrill or is it to show off on camera? Watch for yourself and decide.