‘HAKEEM’ had its world premiere in the Showroom on Sheffield DocFest’s final day. The documentary explores vulnerability and lad culture through the music of British-Jamaican former prisoner and now singer, Hak Baker. Directed by DEADHORSES duo comprised of Ivo Beckett and James Topley, Nicole Collins chatted about grime folk fusion, prison raffles, and breaking into a gig without having asked…
“The story of his life is very much the story of the sounds that he produces,’ Topley said. ‘He started out doing grime in the whole BOMB Squad era around 2006-2007 and was part of the grime unit amongst a lot of his friends from the Isle of Dogs.”
In his mid-twenties, Baker was jailed for two years for robbery, and this proved to be the catalyst for his life and music career, as Topley explains: “In prison he entered a raffle where, out of 500 people, he won an acoustic guitar and lessons. A lot of his lyrics about his life on the streets, originating from his grime roots, were then translated into folk music. As a result, he’s got a completely unique way of playing the guitar.’
Fellow director Ivo Beckett continued: ‘He’s not just like an artist that just sees a trend and decides ‘Yeah, I’m going to jump on that’ – he performs folk music with grime lyrics: the lyrics have always stayed the same, but the music is completely different.’
Much like Baker, the film itself had humble origins; 30% of the film was made up of archival footage provided by Baker, all filmed on an iPhone. As an admirer of his music, Topley snuck into one of Baker’s soundchecks and began filming the behind-the-scenes action. Impressed, Baker and Topley struck up a relationship and the duo began to film his concerts regularly.
James Topley explains what drew him to create HAKEEM: “Hak represented what I thought were the more positive aspects of male masculinity. He was very open with himself emotionally and with other people. He doesn’t do it with any sense of betraying who he is, and he expresses it in a very powerful, kind of soulful way.”
Ivo Beckett continues: “Hak himself and the whole documentary is completely unfiltered and uncut. He is an absolute sweetheart who opened his doors to us, and we were able to make a film about him being completely transparent. We didn’t have to take out a single scene.”
After some discussions with management, the pair stumbled upon the opportunity to create a 15-minute promotional video for his record and were given £20,000 and five days to produce it. Three months, 500 hours of video footage, and a lot of pro-bono work later, the project spawned into what is now HAKEEM, a positive look at modern masculinity and lad culture.
Topley said: “A lot of the themes came from our editor, Claire McGonigal, and she saw things about masculinity that made it so much more profound and interesting. Ultimately, it’s a woman’s perspective on all the footage we made together as men, which is what I think makes it so universal. The film appeals to women, as much as it does men.
“I don’t think the film portrays men as these strong masculine archetypes that are so toxic and poisonous to social conscience. What the film does is show is you can live your own life. I suppose it’s fairly ‘laddy’ to have broken into a gig with a camera without having asked. I think anyone can be a lad in terms of being outgoing and being like ‘I’m going to live my life for me.’ I think that is the kind of liberationist aspect of being a ‘lad’, which anyone, regardless of their background, who they are as a person, or any kind of gender can take on board as a positive thing.”
“The main thing as well is that so many men are killing themselves. It’s completely fucked up in terms of the numbers – it’s the thing most likely to kill young men.
“Hopefully, this film shows men in that position that they can talk about it, cry about it, make a song about it, or just go out and do whatever it is they think they can’t do in their heads – as Hak did.”
Head to DEADHORSES instagram for upcoming deets of where to catch the film.
For more on Sheffield DocFest, click here.
