Followed by what promises to be an amazing discussion between filmmakers and subjects alike, John Lucas’s documentary The Cooler Bandits will be screened Thursday, February 26 in New York at Columbia University. The event is free and open to the public. For Filmmaker, Alix Lambert wrote about the film and talked to Lucas while The Cooler Bandits was in post-production. An excerpt: The Cooler Bandits is the film’s title as well as the crew consisting of Charlie, Donovan, Frankie, and Poochie, who were all teenagers in 1991 when they spent the better part of the year robbing restaurants. Collectively they […]...
- 2/25/2015
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Followed by what promises to be an amazing discussion between filmmakers and subjects alike, John Lucas’s documentary The Cooler Bandits will be screened Thursday, February 26 in New York at Columbia University. The event is free and open to the public. For Filmmaker, Alix Lambert wrote about the film and talked to Lucas while The Cooler Bandits was in post-production. An excerpt: The Cooler Bandits is the film’s title as well as the crew consisting of Charlie, Donovan, Frankie, and Poochie, who were all teenagers in 1991 when they spent the better part of the year robbing restaurants. Collectively they […]...
- 2/25/2015
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
In 1991, four African-American teenagers made the choice to engage in a series of robberies without considering how the consequences of their actions would irrevocably alter their lives. Although no one was physically injured these young men received sentences of up to 500 years. From 2006-2013, director John Lucas follows the unfathomable journeys of Charlie Kelly, Donovan Harris, Richard “Poochie” Roderick and Frankie Porter as they cope and survive despite the harsh realities of prison. The Cooler Bandits documents these men in their respective stages of incarceration as they fight to maintain relationships with family and friends, and reintegrate into society after spending their...
- 9/10/2014
- by Press Release
- ShadowAndAct
John Lucas grew up in Ohio. When Lucas decided to volunteer for the Big Brother / Big Sister program in Akron he couldn’t have known how much it would change his life, and the lives of the boys he would meet. His little brother was an eleven-year-old named Charlie. Soon after meeting Charlie he met Charlie’s cousin: Poochie. He also met a number of other kids, and started photographing all of them.
After Lucas left Ohio, he would return often to the community in Akron, saddened and angered to find the lives of the children that he had known being systematically and rapaciously destroyed by poverty. Many of them ended up incarcerated.
In 2006 Lucas decided to start filming. He focused on four youths he had known. Working with his co-director, Julie Janata, he started filming these four friends through their prison terms and back into society upon their release.
After Lucas left Ohio, he would return often to the community in Akron, saddened and angered to find the lives of the children that he had known being systematically and rapaciously destroyed by poverty. Many of them ended up incarcerated.
In 2006 Lucas decided to start filming. He focused on four youths he had known. Working with his co-director, Julie Janata, he started filming these four friends through their prison terms and back into society upon their release.
- 9/20/2011
- by Alix Lambert
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
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