A J6 Documentary That I Worked On Is Out In Theaters

A feature film that I was a camera op on was released in theaters last month. It’s called 64 Days and it’s the story of the political / social upheavals between the presidential election of 2020 and the riot / siege / insurrection of January 6th. It premiered on September 30th at SVA Theater in Manhattan and then had a run at Cinema Village near Union Square and other small theaters.

I first began working on this topic in the spring of 2020 with thoughts that I may do a film on international culture wars — the peculiar left / right divides that are remarkably similar in many different countries. We were still at the height of Covid pandemic then and one of the only public activities that people were apparently permitted to do in many cities was go out into the streets, yell and scream, destroy property, loot, and kick the shit out of people who disagreed with them. The lockdowns had made us all collectively insane. It was a wild time to be a guy with a camera on his shoulder.

64 Days premiere.

I spent this period zipping around NYC and other parts of the country. As media, I had carte blanc to go wherever I wanted without restriction. I flew on planes that literally had more flight attendants than passengers. I never quite knew if I was making a film about the culture wars or if I simply didn’t have anything better to do.

Either way, I thought that I could split the difference and offer a unique perspective that was neither on this side or that — very much like I made a career doing in Asia — but I got smoked. There is no nuance in the culture war. There just wasn’t a thirst for a deeper understanding. And no market for it either.

This project culminated in three demonstrations in Washington DC following the contested results of the 2020 election — a period of 64 days that later became the title of the aforementioned film. At that time, it was seeming as if challenging the results of the vote was going to be a new normal in America — the previous losing candidate spent two years contesting the results based on documentation that ended up being a complete and total hoax — and I kind of just did an eye roll and went out into the streets and did my thing. Did these people really believe elections were real?

Two gangs had formed which represented the fringes of each side of the political divide and most of the action centered around them moving through the capital trying to brawl with each other. More often than not, they seemed more akin to soccer hooligans than radicals representing anything political. I was able to develop some rapport and embed myself with one of the groups. They walked through the streets all day and night, chatting what amounted to war cries, tore down and burned some banners, got fucked up on booze and drugs, and every once in a while would find a group of “enemies” and a scuffle would break out.

I use the word scuffle intentionally here, as there really weren’t any incidents of true all out combat, which was a little interesting as there were literally hundreds of actors on both sides who were apparently out looking for blood. Once in a while ANTIFA would find a group of elderly Trump supporters and dump garbage on them or try to steal their flags. Once in a while a group of Proud Boys would come across a stray clad in black and kick him around a little. I did film the aftermath of a stabbing, which is featured in the film, but that was the height of the violence.

The DC police were on point, virtually materializing out of nowhere decked out in their Ninja Turtle get-up whenever contingents of these groups got too close to each other. Their level of organization and execution was almost unbelievably impressive.

64 Days at Cinema Village

But at times I found things to be a little suspect as well. I recall one incident where I was filming a group of Proud Boys from Richmond and when they finally evaded police and had a clear shot at their ANTIFA foes they turned and ran the other way down an alley. This group had just spent an hour and a half marching through the streets looking for these dudes and when they found them they bolted.

“Weren’t you just looking for those guys?” I queried their chapter president as he was running away. It was at that point that I became aware that I may not have been filming what I thought I was filming. Or they were simply cowards. Or were just a bunch of drunken dudes who really didn’t care about politics and were simply out to have a good time and fuk shit up.

And then J6 happened.

I very nearly spent this historic event eating peri peri chicken at Nando’s. While there was open talk that some people may try to storm the capital and prevent the coronation of the president from taking place, my previous experience with DC’s public security apparatus gave me the impression that any attempts at doing much of anything would be immediately extinguished. It was my impression that those unarmed blockheads that I spent the past two months following around didn’t stand a chance to break through a line of ultra-trained DC riot cops and enter a building that contained the most important people in the US government.

Trump’s speech was drawn out and boring. The crowd was dead and listless. There was nothing to indicate that anything significant would happen. I figured they’d all just march to the capital, chant their slogans for a while, and then go home. I was over it — I’d collected nothing usable footage-wise so far that day, and I was about to call the trip a wash and split back to NYC …

But then I saw a Tweet from an independent journalist friend that made me think I should probably head over there …

And by the time I arrived all hell had broken lose.

On the one hand, this was a historic event that I was privy to observe and film. I was a part of one of the only professional crews on the ground that day and, to my knowledge, the only one working on a feature film. Legacy media was virtually nowhere to be found — and when a formal news crew was bold enough to make an appearance, they were quickly set upon by the crowd. Cameras were smashed, journalists were beaten, and even the director of 64 Days had the monitor of his FS5 snapped off as a rioter attempted to knock him down a set of stairs. It was the kind of moment that you get into this profession for and nobody was there …

It was just the same rag tag band of independent reporters who had been covering these upheavals the entire time. There was a crew of perhaps a dozen of us, and it’s through our cameras that this story was ultimately told.

On the other hand, the entire thing left me feeling a little sick to my stomach. How did a small handful of untrained, unarmed goons topple the US capital? This was an event that was loaded with nuance that I immediately knew would never rise to the surface. One side would have one position; the other side would have another. There is no middle road in a culture war.

64 Days at Cinema Village.

64 Days credits