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
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
When Canada qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026, OneSoccer knew this wasn'...
04/07/2026
Celebrates company's 80th anniversary
Rhodes have recently revealed that they will be producing a limited run of electric pianos in celebration of their...
04/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program
Brie Clayton July 3, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...
04/07/2026
iZotope Joins Boris FX
Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026
0 Comments
iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
02/07/2026
BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...
02/07/2026
Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...
02/07/2026
The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...
02/07/2026
Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...
02/07/2026
TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...
02/07/2026
The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...
02/07/2026
LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...
02/07/2026
Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...
02/07/2026
Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...
02/07/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...
02/07/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...
02/07/2026
An effort uniting News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo, the 50+-camera live produc...
02/07/2026
Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...
02/07/2026
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out
Brie Clayton July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...
02/07/2026
Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...
02/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
A Band Called Death 
