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Savage DVDs hit mainstream
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Date Posted on this Site
October 3, 2006
Publication
Toronto Sun
Publication Date
October 1, 2006
Published Content
Videos celebrating street violence, gang culture and antisocial behaviour available at a mall near you
By BRODIE FENLON
A shoeless, elderly drunk is tormented by a group of thugs who laugh hysterically as they douse his head with anti-freeze, drop his personal belongings into a storm sewer and knock him to his knees with a milk crate.
In another scene, a young man is dragged from his parked car and beaten repeatedly outside a liquor store; his head stomped into the pavement until he loses consciousness.
One of his attackers steals cash from his pocket as he lies helpless in a parking lot.
In the final act, eight men stomp, punch and kick a shirtless male to cries of "Pound 'em out" and "I'm gonna kill you, bitch." Knocked out cold, the victim is dragged across the pavement. The cameraman remarks smugly, "I think that (expletive) is dead."
Roll credits: It's Ghetto Fights 2, one of a series of DVDs that feature real home videos of violent street fights and group beatings, available at your local HMV, Music World and other retail outlets across Canada for about $16 each.
For anti-violence activists and police, these are America's Scariest Home Videos, graphic celebrations of street violence, gang culture, contempt for the law and antisocial behaviour.
They include Ghetto Fights, featuring bloody battles involving mostly young African Americans in a variety of U.S. cities. The series gets a personal endorsement by rappers Method Man and 50 Cent, the latter who is seen brandishing a pistol and aiming it at the camera.
The more racially diverse Wildest Street Brawls features narrated footage of drunken street fights and high school fisticuffs interspersed with sexually explicit clips of naked women.
One film in the series shows the savage pummelling of a skateboarder. Notes the narrator, matter-of-factly: "His girlfriend can be heard screaming in the background as he takes a beating of a lifetime."
While there's nothing new about violent, underground "reality" videos, their distribution and sale by major corporate players is a change, say industry watchers. For instance, Universal Music Canada and its partner, Navarre Canada, distribute Ghetto Fights and Wildest Street Brawls in this country.
Universal referred Sunday Sun inquiries to Navarre. Francine Winkley, video product development manager for Navarre, said the videos are a "constant seller" and continually on order by Canadian retailers, except in B.C., she said.
That province's film classification agency rated them as adult films, which means they can only be sold in adult-only stores, similar to pornographic movies, a spokesman said.
"In my personal opinion, it has sold surprisingly well," Winkley said of the series. While Navarre doesn't condone the behaviour depicted in the DVDs, the firm will not act as a censor, she said.
"It's not up to us to be the censor board," she said, noting the videos are "absolutely not worse than anything you see on TV."
Toronto Police Staff-Sgt. Dave Saunders, an expert on youth crime, disagrees.
"This is a terrible message, a terrible piece of role modeling being held out in the guise of entertainment," said Saunders, who works with the service's community mobilization unit.
"There is some (corporate) responsibility to not make a buck off this stuff ... Being a party to this is akin to promoting further violence and sometimes horrible gang victimization."
A spokesman for HMV did not return repeated phone calls or an e-mail. Music World general manager Nick Phillips said there have been no complaints about the titles. His chain will only sell movies that have been submitted by suppliers for appropriate classification and rating, he said.
However, Phillips said he was "disturbed" to learn the R-rated videos carry no indication of their ratings and were sold at a Toronto Music World to an unaccompanied 15-year-old intern working for the Sunday Sun.
Valerie Smith, a Toronto-based anti-violence crusader at fradical.com, said controversial videos of the past, such as the infamous Faces of Death film, were typically sold by "fringe companies."
"For someone like Universal to be peddling this, that's outrageous," she said. "If you take the footage of the homeless person, that's a crime. That's assault. And this is most definitely going to encourage kids to videotape stuff like this and submit it."
Indeed, the DVDs are created by an obscure California-based film company called RF (Real Fight) Productions, which solicits video footage of violence on its website with an offer of up to $1,000.
As the site states, "We are looking for video footage of real street brawls, gang footage, ultimate fighting/ fight club style video, extreme wrestling, girls wrestling, girls mud wrestling, or anything else really outrageous."
Calls to the company were not returned.
Last year, U.S. activist Rev. Al Sharpton denounced the video series as "racist" on the FOX TV show Hannity & Colmes. He said the films are "breaking the self-esteem of young people all over America."
Said Smith, "It's like we've gone back to the gladiator age and we're at the coliseum. We're supposed to be becoming more civilized. Instead we're kind of rocketing backward."
Another violent "reality" video series called Bumfights made headlines last week after a 20-year-old man was convicted in Los Angeles of beating two homeless men with a baseball bat after watching one of the videos.
My Response Letter
This is exactly why society needs censorship. If citizens do not demand that some material is not good for anyone, then sooner or later almost anything is good for someone. Selling beatings for profit is just a step away from selling murder for profit.
Jason Gennaro
Was my response published?
No
Did I get a response?
No