Tribeca 2016 Exclusive: Director Justin Tipping Talks ‘Kicks’Posted by Wilson Morales
April 24, 2016
Recently making its World Premiere at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival was the coming-of-age drama Kicks, which Focus World will release in theaters in July.
Directed by Justin Tipping from a script by Tipping and Joshua Beirne-Golden, the film stars Jahking Guillory, Christopher Jordan Wallace, Christopher Meyer, Kofi Siriboe, and Mahershala Ali (“House of Cards”).
In Tipping’s feature debut Kicks, nothing is as simple as it seems. Fifteen-year-old Brandon longs for a pair of the freshest sneakers that money can buy; assuming that merely having them on his feet will help him escape the reality of being poor, neglected by the opposite sex and picked on by everyone — even his best friends. Working hard to get them, he soon finds that the titular shoes have instead made him a target after they are promptly snatched by local hood, Flaco. Seemingly the embodiment of menace, Flaco harbors complexities of his own that will be revealed when Brandon goes on a mission to retrieve his stolen sneakers with his two best friends in tow.
For Tipping, won a DGA Student Academy Award and the Lexus Short Film competition, making this film brought out some personal history but also helped him grow as a director. In speaking with Blackfilm.com, Tipping goes his journey in making ‘Kicks.’
How did this story come about for you?
Justin Tipping: It was inspired by the time I got jumped when I was 16, which all started over a pair of Nikes I was wearing, but the real emotional impetus was the aftermath of that experience, in which my brother and my peers kind of looked at me. It was like, “Oh, it’s all good. You’re a man now,” which was a bad moment, and it made me realize in retrospect, synonymous with violence, and, kind of, themes coming out from there, and this became about bigger issues.
I mean about bullying, cyber bullying, commodity fetishism, gun violence. Kind of a symphony of all those things going at once, I guess. It was a personal story, and the story I thought should be told, and that I’d never really seen before. I felt like I should just do it.
How long did it take you to put together the story, get it structured correctly, and take out the nuts and bolts to get a good feature?
Justin Tipping: Oh my God. Well, I had the idea in 2009, and then I actually started to write it like a short and I made a short film about it. Then I finished the feature script, I think 2012? It took a year. It took a year to finish those scripts. Even then, during development, when we were polishing and kind of winnowing it down, probably had, like 15 pages out of the original scripts to get it to a place that was makeable and, you know, without compromising the story.
You’ve gotten a good cast here. With the exception of Mahershala Ali, everybody else is new. Not everybody realizes C.J. Wallace is an actor. How did you go about looking for this young talent?
Justin Tipping: I knew that I wanted to mix known actors with new actors, and so we were just blessed with (casting director) Kim Hardin, who cast Hustle & Flow, and she came on board, and she was seeing with people in L.A and we had another person in San Francisco seeing hundreds and hundreds of kids. I had moved back home with my parents, like, four months before production, and I was going out with the producers, and going to all the youth groups I could find that arts programs and things like that.
Anyone who wanted to audition, I would bring in and just talk to. With Mahershala Ali actually, we were very blessed because he heard about the script, and he happened to be from Oakland. I think he was born in Oakland, where we were talking on the phone briefly, so he just got out and skyped me, and was like, “Bro, all right, is this so big, or what?” And I get it.
We just shared stories about growing up in the area, and he was just up to do whatever we wanted, so I thank him immensely for giving me his time and for trusting me, for the first time.
Where did you get the idea to inject the music as chapters?
Justin Tipping: I had actually written the end of it, and the title actually changed as we were cutting. I got the idea from a mix of some of my favorite films and used these ideas as chapter markers. Films like, Breaking The Waves for example. I also wanted to use hiphop quotes as they not only coincided with the themes and foreshadowed what the character was going through, but also reflected how rappers influence the youth who listen in positive and complex ways from simple references to Nikes to deeper ideas of what’s worth dying for.
Whenever new sneakers come out, whether they are Jordans or from anybody else who’s famous, there’s a story in the paper about violence regarding the theft of sneakers? Is this something that should be advocated? “Hey, somebody’s taking your sneakers. Go back and get it.” What do you want people to get out of this?
Justin Tipping: No, I don’t advocate that at all. In fact, I hope that it starts a dialogue about how this happened in the first place and how can we end the cycle. I also wanted to shed light to the fact that, yeah, this happens every day, to kids all over the world. Whether it be shoes or iPhones or a necklace or anything. I really think I want kids to see this, but it might be going through somewhere where they’ve got problems and are seeing the same things. I’m not saying, I think there is something to be, a collective. We need to come together and actually examine the true violence, but I think everyone has a right to, if you can afford expensive Jordans, you have every right to buy them. I don’t think you should prioritize your money into shoes or, books for school in that way, but I also think if you do get those Jordans, you don’t deserve to get, jumped for them. That’s kind of my point of view on the situation.
Were any of the films that people may compare this to something you’ve watched in the past? Films from Boyz in the Hood to Dope. There are elements from those films in Kicks. Were any of those films influential to you?
Justin Tipping: Oh, yeah. Definitely. I always go back to Boyz in the Hood. I grew up on Juice, but at the same time, I was watching those John Hughes movies or Spielberg movies like The Goonies or Breakfast Club. So how can I take, like a really true coming-of-age story about, like, borderline preteen and have an epic journey for them? But, you know, rooted in a world that I grew up the same. It was kind of a collage of influence, but those are all true. You’re spot on with all of those references. Definitely.
