00:00:05.410 - 00:00:28.880

what my name is Richard Old War, and I am considered to be one of the founders of the KQED film. You know, the film, titled Losing Just the Same, is Well, actually, it's the fourth film in a Siris of four that I wanted to do, the

00:00:28.880 - 00:00:47.730

third one being Elijah Mohammed film, which was extraordinarily boring. Um, we had become somewhat frustrated as a result of Louisiana Diary, for example, but not being able to get close enough to what's really going on. Not being able to see things from the perspective of our

00:00:47.730 - 00:01:11.060

subjects, which is a very important point in every film, has a point of view. And these were, um, the reason of diary was an attempt to get from a nim ege you know, a film from the point of view from the perspective of the people involved,

00:01:11.440 - 00:01:33.350

namely a family in Oakland, a black family living on welfare, uh, and concentrating on one of the sons, Robert, and we ran into the same problem that that we were. You run into an all films you can film and film and film, and sure, it's all

00:01:33.350 - 00:01:51.070

interesting, but it doesn't add up to a story. And so how do you How do you How do you put it into form, or what form do you put it in? And we tried to do something in losing just the same. Which we would would have

00:01:51.070 - 00:02:11.450

been anathema in the earlier films, which was staged their fantasy sequences in that film. And I think overall, it's less successful than many of the films. Um, there, there. But it was our attempt to take a step beyond the simple, pure documentary. Losing Just the same

00:02:11.450 - 00:02:36.100

was a film about a family living on welfare in the in the predominantly or almost exclusively African American neighborhood in Oakland, California Um, and it's important to note that this film there's a new additional contributor, a new member of the KQED film that in a man

00:02:36.100 - 00:02:56.600

named Saul Landau who made much of this film possible because he contacted the family and solid air, the co producers and directors of the co producers and writers. I guess I can't remember the title. Um, and sometimes, you know, those titles can run on forever, not

00:02:56.600 - 00:03:12.960

a not a lot of the films that I made there pretty sure it begins with the KQED film unit, which was Take this hammer. It extends to the KQED film. You know the names, a couple of people or four people in five, maybe in Louisiana Diary,

00:03:13.410 - 00:03:36.780

and then gets around to a few more in losing just the same because we commissioned to score with a man named Johnny Talbot and the things, uh, again salt Landell made the contacts arranged for the filming. It was a break in the documentary, too. It's not

00:03:36.780 - 00:03:59.180

a pure documentary, it may even be, and you could argue that it's a not even a documentary, Um, because it's set up. Uh, the family knew when we were going to be there, and we were there many hours of the day. Irving Saraf, in particular, directed

00:03:59.180 - 00:04:21.250

many of the scenes with the family, and I would be back in San Francisco working on the next film. Uh, and so I was in and out of the making of losing just the same Well, we were mixing genres which which are not, uh or just

00:04:21.250 - 00:04:42.200

a zay said, excluded from the concept of documentary as being a pure observation of what's going on or participation in what's going on we were participating, but we're trying to put together a story, and we're used techniques which you simply don't use in documentary, which is

00:04:42.230 - 00:05:00.260

a stage scene fantasy life, I mean, under the naive notion that we could get inside somebody else's head, which is pretty silly in retrospect, but didn't keep us from prevented from trying to do them. Uh, particularly when Robert has this fantasy about his mother and the

00:05:00.260 - 00:05:18.150

Cadillac and all. So we rented a Cadillac and rearranged for a house in the Piedmont area. I think it was and went and set it up. And Robert was a natural actor. I think went through all of this, The last scenes where he's in the in

00:05:18.150 - 00:05:41.900

jail in juvenile. Um, Hall are what? I can't remember the name of the jail in Oakland. Okay, The last scene in the film is not fantasy it Israel in the sense that it was filmed with Robert in jail in his cell and the mhm. The only

00:05:41.900 - 00:05:55.250

word I can think of right now is weird. Aspect of all of that is that we had all of this footage up to that point. We didn't up to the very ending in this room. We had no idea how we were going to end up. It

00:05:55.250 - 00:06:13.970

could go on and on and on absolute boredom, which is another aspect of living in a ghetto. Um, but I wrote a script for what might happen during the summer. And strangely enough, what happened was strangely similar to what I wrote in the script. The reason

00:06:13.970 - 00:06:31.210

I wrote the Scriptures that the funders wanted to know. Where is this film? What you gonna look like? And so I wrote a well, they could look like this, but don't always, George, It may not happen that way. It did, uh, and and the last scenes

00:06:31.210 - 00:06:51.020

was Robert, uh, in jail one in and when it's pretty apparent. But he's headed for something that happens too often where we imprison all our black youths and get them off the streets. Um, is that's his. That's his future. And it z painful, I think to

00:06:51.020 - 00:07:10.070

hear him say I'm not a loser, but people keep trying to make it out. That I will, and they didn't. Well, what I wrote was, in general terms, I wrote that during the summer, um, Robert would end up in some kind of act of violence which

00:07:10.070 - 00:07:27.610

would end up in his being arrested and imprisoned. That was the end then that was, and that's in a sense, what happened now. It's not to say that his life ended there. We don't follow up on that, Um, he was in and out of San Quentin.

00:07:33.040 - 00:07:55.670

What we were able to capture in the film is is what, from my perspective, is the inevitable consequence of being a young man living during that time in that particular place and ending up with a almost frivolous expression of opposition. Let's say, ending up in jail

00:07:55.670 - 00:08:24.790

as a result. If nothing else, that gives you a picture of what little reason people are black people would get arrested and other minorities as well. Oh, the intention was to try and do the impossible, which was get a perspective on on four prominent aspect of

00:08:24.800 - 00:08:49.370

the black experience. Um, you know, beginning in San Francisco, from there to Louisiana from there, too, the black Muslim Church and Elijah Mohammed and then from there to back to the Urban Center and what's it like toe live? Be a young member of a a family

00:08:49.370 - 00:09:14.640

on welfare in Oakland. Nothing more complicated than than that. Another is. In some respects, these films are extremely simple, on obvious. And when we try to do things which are not consistent with the documentary tradition, we were, I think, just marginally successful. But Saul Landau did

00:09:14.640 - 00:09:22.060

bring a very interesting perspective into the film unit, and we made several other films as well with soul.