Q&A: Director Khalik Allah's documentary captures beauty at a Harlem intersection

Nov. 9, 2015 2:31 PM PT

The Pathmark grocery store, Rainbow clothing outlet and bodegas at 125th Street and Lexington Avenue in Harlem may seem unlikely settings for a documentary film. But for director Khalik Allah, there’s a beauty in the struggle of the men and women who find themselves here, at poverty’s doorsteps, that deserves to be captured.

“Beauty is obviously in the eye of the beholder,” Allah said. “But to me, these people are rich regardless of the exterior circumstance that depicts them as being poor and drug addicted.”

SIGN UP for the free Indie Focus movies newsletter >>

His new film, “Field ...,” whose title includes a variant spelling of the N-word, showed Friday and Sunday during the American Film Institute’s AFI Fest. In it Allah highlights those who call the New York City intersection and its surrounding streets home. Among them are addicts of a street drug called K2 (synthetic marijuana) and formerly incarcerated alcoholics, people whom audience members might usually ignore or walk past. This film, which continues to make rounds at festivals nationally, forces audiences to spend 60 minutes listening to its subjects riff on police harassment, their personal dreams and fears, and their lives at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

Allah, popular on social media for his photography, spoke with The Times by phone from Copenhagen to discuss his documentary and the men and women of Harlem:

How did you first come to know about 125th Street and Lexington?
I grew up as a Five Percenter, which is headquartered in Harlem. [The Five Percent nation is also known as the Nation of Gods and Earths.] I used to see [that corner] and avoid it. Later on, when I became an artist, I took interest in the intersection because all of the content and substance in the area. They had a tendency to be more open than the Eastside, where I was before.

What about this corner stood out to you as important to highlight? What do you see in these people that others might not?
I focused on this corner because of how sketchy it is and the police and the beauty I saw through my lens. I don’t see them as addicts. I’m identifying with the spirit within the people. I’m not seeing their weaknesses. I only see their strength. And by focusing on their strengths, it’s the purest form of charity.

Why did you choose that title for your documentary ? Are you trying to be provocative?
I was in a rebellious mentality while I was making the film [during the summer of 2014]. But my superheros are Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner, slaves who fought against the master and led rebellions.

The people in my film represent the field slaves of today. Money is being made off of their bodies. Even if they don’t have jobs, they’re being recycled by the prison industrial system. I wanted to play off of that concept from slavery.

[In the film, Allah also states the title is also pulled from a Malcolm X speech, titled “Message to the Grassroots,” in which the activist describes two different types of slaves, those who worked in the house and those who worked in the field.]

1/78

Actor Christian Bale takes pictures and signs autographs with fans lining Hollywood Boulevard before walking the red carpet for the premiere of “The Big Short” on the closing night of AFI.