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One Week's Griot
By Carla Robinson
No soap opera has ever had the dramatic plot twists of independent filmmaking.
Most artists who have the heart to traffic in this pursuit emerge with a hell of a story
to tell, and Carl Seaton is no exception. As one third of Griot Filmworks and director of
the company’s first feature, One Week, Seaton finds himself in the enviable
position of being declared up-and-coming, yet he’s not about to forget striving to
come up. One Week took home the Acapulco Black Film Festival’s award for the
best American film this year, but it wasn’t long ago when Seaton and his partners,
writer/actor Kenny Young and producer Phil James, were on the hustle to complete it.
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© RLP Ventures 2000
Carl Seaton
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Seaton, who’s so candid that you
wonder if he knows what business he’s in, is quick to admit that he was in awe of the
competition at ABFF. Many of the other films featured big budgets and big stars. He was
floored when One Week turned out to be the little engine that could. “You
have to understand,” he offered, “Acapulco was the first time an audience had
seen the film. So, going in, we knew we had something, but we had no public reaction to go
on, so we didn’t know what we had.”
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But the audience knew exactly what Griot Filmworks had - a
daring and authentic film that personalizes the repercussions of AIDS in the Black
community. Through a well-crafted narrative, solid acting, and steady directing, Griot
managed to make a subject no one really wants to talk about into a film that everyone
wants to see.
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Seaton chuckled when he remembered shopping One Week around in an
effort to get funding. Because of its subject matter, more than one member of
Hollywood’s Black Glitterati suggested that Griot shoot something else. “They
told us, ‘Make people smile. You’re young, do something happy.’” But
Seaton, Young, and James were driven to make a meaningful film that showed that “Just
like hip hop has evolved, so has AIDS. It’s no longer about homosexuality or drug
use.”
Seaton is grateful for what happened at ABFF. Since then, he mused, “Nothing has been
the same.” Certainly not. Word of mouth about One Week swept from Acapulco
to New York’s Urbanworld Film Festival, where it played to packed audiences and took
home the coveted Grand Jury Prize. Not bad for a few young guys from Chicago who’ve
done everything from high school teaching to handiwork to support their filmmaking habit.
Not to mention the days spent crewing on other people’s shoots, which proved
motivational in an unexpected way. Many of the films turned out to be squandered fortunes,
and while working on them, Seaton recalled, “We’d say to each other, ‘These
guys have millions of dollars and they’re making this?’ We couldn’t just
take it. We knew we had to do something.” So they did. And now, while One Week
is in negotiations for distribution, they’re on to their next project, which Seaton
wants to have ready for Acapulco next year.
M
September 2000
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