The director, Damon Russell, initially coy about what was real and what was scripted, now emphasizes that “Snow on the Bluff” isn’t a record of actual events, that it’s just another lo-fi indie film, like “The Blair Witch Project.” Nothing to see here, officer. Because the footage is so raw, they say, the Atlanta police sought it as evidence in some criminal investigations. He robs dope boys, he runs from the cops, he sells drugs, all while trying to provide for his two-year-old son. At first its business as usual for Curtis.
The makers of “Snow on tha Bluff” flip that reasoning. Movie info: When Curtis Snow steals a video camera from some college kids during a dope deal, he gives the camera to his best friend, Pancho, and they start documenting their lives.
Often makers of feature films using a documentary’s tools - hand-held cameras, jumpy cuts, ambient lighting, fragmented narrative - say they do so to approximate reality. No one seems to have a steady job, and there’s no shaking the sense of wasted souls in a forsaken sector of society.
This riveting account of thug life - the unglamorous, impoverished variety - is punctuated by constant profanity and undecipherable slang, occasional violence, steady drinking and weed or crack smoking. “They say drugs kill you,” he says to the camera, before disagreeing: “They help you out. We also learn about Snow’s business: selling drugs that are largely supplied, it seems, by ripping off other dealers at gunpoint during late-night raids.
So we tour the Bluff while he introduces his crew, his baby mama and two toddlers, his grandmother, the street corner where his brother was fatally shot. The dealer, Curtis Snow, steals one other thing too: the idea of filming everything he does. A dealer approaches the car, smoothly talks his way in, directs them to a secluded street, then, pulling out a handgun, robs them of their money and - why not? - the camera. He collapses in the street nearby, where he is found by a police patrol and subsequently arrested in connection with a prior robbery.From the start of “Snow on tha Bluff,” which runs without any introductory credits, this jolt of a film drops into a you-are-there crime scene: Three college students - one manning a video camera - drive into the Bluff, a run-down neighborhood in West Atlanta (actually, run-down is being kind), looking to buy drugs. Luckily the bullet wounds are not fatal and the ambusher's gun jams, allowing Curtis to flee. On his way back home after cutting the latest stolen product with his crew, Curtis is ambushed in a backyard alleyway by the rival gang members. The man in the white hat follows Curtis into his territory, asking the locals about him, but the surface threat doesn't faze Curtis and he continues to hustle. While playing at a pool hall, Curtis recognizes one of the rival gang members by his familiar white hat, who likewise takes note of Curtis. When a friend tips him off to another gang selling drugs nearby, he invades their house with the help of his friend and robs them of their supply as well. He recruits his friends and robs the rivals of their drug supply. watch moreĬurtis soon learns that another group of people have encroached on his territory, selling drugs not far from his street. This follow-up to Snow On Tha Bluff deals with the lasting effects of war on an American soldier.
It was announced on October 17th 2012, Producer Chris Knittel and Director Damon Russell were casting for a new film that revolves around military veterans returning home. He followed with, "everything that is wrong with the hood, is in this movie". On the Breakfast Club program on New York radio station Power 105.1, Williams described the movie's truthful portrayal of the hood. Snow on tha Bluff is Williams first executive produced film under his company, Freedome Productions. Williams is best known for his portrayal of Omar from The Wire and Chalky White on Boardwalk Empire. Williams revealed that he is an Executive Producer on Snow On Tha Bluff. He survived a grisly box-cutter knife attack.Ī melee broke out at the film's showing at the Atlanta Film Festival, as some audience members were unsure of the authenticity of a scene in which a child puts his hands into a pile of crack cocaine with a razor blade in it.Īs a result of officers seeing a part of the movie, the Atlanta Police Department contacted the filmmakers in connection with an investigation into a string of home invasions. An attempt on Curtis Snow's life occurred in December 2011.