
A Band Called Death
data-src=https://creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/avatars/331518/6032a6618ca8b-bpthumb.jpg data-srcset=https://creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/avatars/331518/6032a661768ea-bpfull.jpg 2x class=lazyload avatar avatar-80 photo height=80 width=80 />
Debra Kaufman February 22, 2021
0 Comments
Playing music impossibly ahead of its time, Death is now being credited as the first black punk band (heck the first punk band!) and its members Bobby Hackney, Sr., Dannis Hackney, David Hackney, and Bobbie Duncan are finally receiving their long overdue recognition as true rock pioneers. Directors Jeff Howlett and Mark Covino speak about the making of this surprising film.
Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, three African-American teenage brothers formed a band in their spare bedroom and played proto-punk music. In this era of Motown and disco, record companies found Death's music and band name too intimidating, and the group disbanded.
Released by Drafthouse Films, A Band Called Death chronicles the journey of what happened almost three decades later, when a 1974 demo tape stored in an attic found an audience several generations younger.
Debra Kaufman: How did you find this story and what about it made you want to make a movie about it?
Jeff Howlett: I knew the family for about 20 years. I was introduced to them in the early 1990s when I was in a rock band and we played a festival with Lambsbread, Bobby and Dannis' reggae band. Bobby Jr. told me that he was in a band, Rough Francis, covering his father's music, so I went to a local venue in 2008, thinking I would get some Lambsbread.
When I heard the band's music, I was completely blown away. I was shocked just like Julian was when he says in the movie, Dad, why didn't you tell me you played punk music? In fact, a lot of us music guys in and around Vermont were completely shocked about the whole Death thing. Right after the concert, I downloaded the song and Ben Blackwell put the songs on the chunklet website.
Fast forward a few months, when the Death album was re-issued on Drag City records. It was about the time the New York Times article came out in March 2009, and that's when I started documenting what was going on. I sent my friend Mark [Covino], with whom I'd worked on a music video, the New York Times piece and the two-track chunklet, and asked if he were interested in getting involved.
data-src=https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/21181728/Creative_Commons_Mark_Covino_MG_7195_Brattle_Theatre_CC_BY-NC-ND_20.jpg alt= class=lazyload wp-image-2404376/>Mark Covino, Brattle Theatre
Image courtesy Creative CommonsMark Covino: I had just met Jeff on this music video and he was yapping in my ear about Death and this New York Times article. I'd come off three years, spending $25,000 of my own cash to make my own feature doc, and I was burned out on documentaries. So I told him I wasn't completely interested, but when he said it would only be a 20-minute documentary, I said, sure, send over the article and two audio tracks. Then I didn't look at his email for 2 weeks. I ignored it. I didn't know who Jeff was and thought the story didn't sound real.
I was having one of those I'm a filmmaker not making the film I want to make moments. My other doc was about hip-hop and couldn't get finished. Then I finally read the NYT article and it stopped me in my tracks. Everything Jeff told me about the band flooded into my mind. I played the track Keep On Knocking and couldn't believe how perfect a movie this would make. I called Jeff and said he was out of his mind to do a 20-minute doc. This had to be a feature story.
Jeff: I was just finishing film school, at Burlington College in Vermont, and I had never made a documentary before. The first interviews we did were with Bobby and Dannis at their practice space, and we knew right away from those interviews that there was something special about this that it was going to be way more than just 20 minutes.
data-src=https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/21181539/Creative_Comons_Jeff_Howlett_Collodion_Shooter_adoephoto.jpg alt= class=lazyload wp-image-2404375/>Jeff Howlett, Collodion Shooter
Image courtesy Creative Commons, adoephotoMark: From those interviews, we got names of people and friends of theirs. We'd read online about celebrities talking about the band and we compiled a list of them to interview. We made it our mission to interview everyone connected to the story. At a certain point, we became aware that it was less about the band and more about David, and his love for his brothers. Once we got into that, it became a whole different movie and a better movie than the one we first thought we were going to make.
We knew we had to tell this story by any means necessary. There was no Kickstarter or Indiegogo then. We got to a place where we were completely broke, at the end of our rope. About a year- and-a-half after we started, we talked on the phone about putting the movie on hold since it was killing us. We even talked about abandoning it, because it was destroying us financially and at home. We thought, let's shoot every now and then, and make it a 5-year project. It was a pretty depressing phone conversation.
Two hours after that conversation, a friend of mine in Vermont who follows celebrities texted me that Hollywood producer Scott Mosier was tweeting about our movie. I called my friend and asked what the hell he was talking about. Apparently Scott had come across a promo Jeff and I had cut and put online, and Scott was raving about how he wanted to see the movie. I asked my friend to write Scott a direct message on Twitter and send him my personal email and the trailer, which is way better than the promo. And to tell him tha
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
07/08/2025
July 8 2025, 22:30 (PDT) Tata Motors & Dolby Bring Dolby Atmos to Harrier.ev, R...
11/07/2025
PARK CITY, UTAH, July 11, 2025 - The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the 11 producers chosen for its annual Producers Labs, returning to Ucross Fou...
11/07/2025
If you've ever wondered what might be playing in Clark Kent's headphones...
11/07/2025
L3Harris Technologies President of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Jason Lambert and General Manager of L3Harris Waco facility Sean Ling held a ce...
11/07/2025
ARLINGTON, Va. WETA, the flagship public media station in the national capital area, has launched WETA+, a new streaming service tailored for the local Washingt...
11/07/2025
The Federal Communications Commission has emerged as one of the central players in the broadcast TV landscape in 2025, with its deregulatory policies sparking h...
11/07/2025
Calrec will introduce usability, customization and system enhancements across its entire range of Argo consoles during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Amsterda...
11/07/2025
LONDON Encompass Digital Media said it will support live and on-demand viewing of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup across multiple global regions for sports enterta...
11/07/2025
Two-thirds of broadcast engineers reaped the benefits of a pay raise within the last year....
11/07/2025
CARY, N.C. SmallHD has launched the Quantum 27, a new 26.5-inch Quantum-Dot OLED monitor designed to deliver postproduction image quality in a compact, set-frie...
11/07/2025
The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau and Tegna have entered into a consent decree that will settle an investigation into the accidenta...
11/07/2025
WASHINGTON Following news in early July that Paramount had settled President Donald Trump's lawsuit, Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Ben Ray Luj n (D-N...
11/07/2025
Model/Actriz Performs Lead Single Cinderella on The Late Show with Stephen Colbe...
11/07/2025
Behind the Mic: Amazon Prime Preps for First Season of NBA Action; MSG Networks ...
11/07/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Suite Studios' Craig Hering on Adapting to Client...
11/07/2025
2025 SVG Content Management Forum Breaks Down AI's Impact, Continued Transit...
11/07/2025
A Journey HOME: University of Nebraska's HuskerVision Goes IP Leaders from the HuskerVision and Lawo share their IP learnings By SVG Staff
Friday, July 1...
11/07/2025
CMSI, Remote Picture Labs, Ace ESPN's Cloud-Based Editing Efforts for Wimble...
11/07/2025
Netflix Enters the Live-Boxing-Production Ring for Round 2 With Historic Taylor-...
11/07/2025
Back to All News
Too Hot to Handle: Italy Is Coming on July 18 Only on Netflix
Entertainment
11 July 2025
GlobalItaly
Link copied to clipboard
July 11, 20...
11/07/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Will Release Death Inc. Seasons 1, 2 and 3
Entertainment
11 July 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Season 1
Season 2
Se...
11/07/2025
AI and Multimedia Authenticity Standards Collaboration launches two papers to guide the future of AI integration, today at the AI for Good Global Summit
The...
11/07/2025
Ceramics - the humble mix of earth, fire and artistry - have been part of a global conversation for millennia.
From Tang Dynasty trade routes to Renaissance pa...
10/07/2025
The current holder of the prestigious Thomson Foundation Young Journalist of the Year Award has been forced to stop reporting over fears for her safety in Afgha...
10/07/2025
Spotify is turning up the volume on Australian music with a multipronged initiative designed to highlight the dominance of Australian artists on the global stag...
10/07/2025
This is not a drill: Oasis is back on the road-marking its first live performanc...
10/07/2025
The music industry depends on fresh ideas, bold voices, and emerging talent. Yet across the U.K., too many young musicians lack the space to develop their craft...
10/07/2025
NEW YORK - July 10, 2025 - Nielsen, the global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, today announced that it appointed Richard Pacheco as head of ...
10/07/2025
Local newscasts don't exist in a vacuum. News directors and station management constantly evaluate what's working, what isn't and perhaps most impor...
10/07/2025
Lawo has announced that Stuttgart Media University (Hochschule der Medien, HdM) has comprehensively modernized its central recording studio after selecting an I...
10/07/2025
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) has opened early-bird registration for the Media Technology Summit, which will take place in a ne...
10/07/2025
NASHVILLE, Tenn. TNDV Television has launched Aspiration 35, a new version of its 40-foot Aspiration truck reimagined for cinematic multicamera productions....
10/07/2025
BURBANK, Calif. Key Code Education, a provider of instructor-led postproduction training, is growing its curriculum with new programs for beginner and intermedi...
10/07/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. Actus Digital will demonstrate how broadcasters can transform compliance monitoring from a necessary expense into a strategic revenue driver at...
10/07/2025
The Federal Register has published a summary of the Federal Communications Commission's Public Notice seeking comments on its ownership rules that lists a d...
10/07/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Presents the Official Trailer for SuperestarPlay Video
Play Video
Entertainment
10 July 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard...
10/07/2025
In the race to understand our planet's changing climate, speed and accuracy are everything. But today's most widely used climate simulators often strugg...
10/07/2025
As one of the world's largest emerging markets, Indonesia is making strides toward its Golden 2045 Vision - an initiative tapping digital technologies and...
10/07/2025
10 Jul 2025
VEON and Cohen Circle Secure Investor Commitments for Kyivstar Listing Kyiv, New York, Dubai, and Philadelphia - July 10, 2025 - VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq:...
10/07/2025
5G for all? What the DFL's use of Easy5G and RefCam could mean for events in...
10/07/2025
Save the Date: PGA TOUR Studios Welcomes SVG Remote Production Summit on Oct 14-...
10/07/2025
Cloud on the Road: How Remote-Production-Service Providers Are Adapting to a New...
10/07/2025
Seattle Kraken's Ryan Schaber on the NHL Team Taking Live Game Productions I...
10/07/2025
FOX Sports Reboots Small Control Room in Los Angeles as Hub for Vertical-First P...
10/07/2025
SVG Sit-Down: MSE's Zach Leonsis, ViewLift's Rick Allen Go Deep on Joint...
10/07/2025
Thursday 10 July 2025
The Very Small Creatures
Jaime's Treetop Tales
Emerald
BooSnoo! Christmas Mashup
Pip & Posy's Spooktacular Party
The Very Sm...
10/07/2025
Thursday 10 July 2025
Brand new rewards are coming to Sky customers, with free ...