Damon Davis, co-director of the documentary “Whose Streets?,” is sharing what made him a new force in independent filmmaking.
Davis has been tapped to kick off the inaugural “Tapping Our Genius,” a quarterly conversation series geared to the “sonic arts community,” taking place Thursday at the St. Louis Hop Shop.
“Its funny to me I’m a part of something with the word ‘genius’ in it,” he says. “That’s a lot to look up to, and I don’t think I’m there yet. I’m excited and humbled by it.”
Davis directed the Ferguson-based documentary with director Sabaah Folayan. The film had its world premiere in 2017 at the Sundance Film Festival and is available for streaming on Hulu. Davis says “Whose Streets?” has played more than 100 film festivals, including the St. Louis International Film Festival. The film, which has a 97 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, looks at the uprising that followed the 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown through the eyes of the protesters and activists.
Long before the documentary, Davis was a hip-hop artist, one half of the act Scripts ’N Screwz with Koby Rogers.
Scripts 'N Screwz
Davis was asked to participate in “Tapping Our Genius” by his friend Cheeraz Gormon, whose organization Sonic Arts United is among those behind the event.
Davis says his journey hasn’t been easy, but it’s what he has been doing much of his life.
“A lot of people are entering the story with me now,” he says. “But it took a lot of work and a lot of sacrifice to hone my skills to where I am today.
“I’ll be talking about my journey as an artist and my journey as a creative, my thought process around the things I do and maybe the effects I want it to have on the audiences listening to me and audiences in general. Hopefully we can engage in a conversation.”
Davis’ journey with Scripts ’N Screwz began with the 2008 album “New Noise.” Through his rap act, he learned skills that would come into play later, including producing, videography and editing.
The FarFetched record label, which Davis runs with Darian Wigfall and Charles Parnell, came next. Through the label, he was able to influence, and be influenced by, a number of St. Louis acts. (FarFetched releases a compilation album, “Prologue VII,” Saturday night at the Firebird.)
"Prologue VII"
“That’s my baby,” he says of FarFetched, founded in 2011. With the label, “I had a lot of side projects, and I was doing a lot of productions, and after a while I looked up, and I was doing all this other stuff for other people, and I wasn’t creating like I wanted to.”
Though he’s always making music, no plans have been laid out for the next Scripts ’N Screwz project. (Davis released a solo project, “Loa,” in 2016.) “We gotta work that out, and we’re not gonna rule anything out,” he says. “We gotta get our ducks in a row.”
Working behind the scenes at FarFetched has affected his recording as Scripts ’N Screwz, as has time spent on “Whose Streets?”
"Whose Streets?"
“The last two years I had been making ‘Whose Streets?’ I started traveling, and people were wanting me to speak at things as I had a bigger role in what was happening nationally,” Davis says.
He and Folayan knew “Whose Streets?” would resonate with viewers. But what surprised him, he says, was the positive reaction from white audiences.
“People from St. Louis felt it represented the truth and felt the truth in my creating a document that will live long past me,” Davis says. “We rarely get to tell the story from our side. Usually it’s a white man dropping in with a camera looking at us like we’re in a zoo.”
There are more movies he wants to make. And though he says there are more Ferguson stories to tell, as far as he’s concerned, they’re for someone else. He has one more documentary planned, about a friend on death row.
Looking forward, Davis is more interested in pushing new narratives, writing fresh scripts in the sci-fi/fantasy realm, “areas we never get to live in showcasing the black imagination.”
What “Tapping Our Genius” with Damon Davis • When 9 p.m. Thursday • Where St. Louis Hop Shop, 2600 Cherokee Street • How much $5 • More info eventbrite.com
What “Prologue VII” album release party with 18andCounting, Subtle Aggression Monopoly, CaveofswordS, Blank Generation, Hands and Feet, Scrub Lyfe • When 8 p.m. Saturday • Where The Firebird, 2706 Olive Street • How much $10 • More info ticketfly.com