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Afeni
reviewed several proposals from filmmakers seeking her involvement.
But Lazin brought her extensive experience at MTV to the table as well
as a concept for the documentary that matched Afeni's wishes for a
film about Tupac's life. "What we had in common is the way we
wanted to tell the story. It was very important to [Afeni] that [the
documentary] would be told from his point of view in his own words,
which was something I very much wanted to do," Lazin noted.
"Because
we had that compatibility with how we wanted to tell the story, it was
really a great collaboration," Lazin added at a recent press
junket for Resurrection.
Even though Afeni served as executive producer of
the film, she allowed Lazin the space the director needed to work.
"Afeni put no restrictions on the movie. She wanted to spend time
talking to me about Tupac and her memories. She let me make the
movie," Lazin explained.
Afeni, also in New York to support the theatrical
release of Resurrection, is quite pleased with the finished product.
"I'm grateful for the quality of it and I'm amazed by my son. I'm
just so amazed by his energy, his magnetism and his clarity," she
said proudly.
But Afeni agrees that she isn't alone in her
admiration of Tupac and speaks warmly of the artists who contributed
to Resurrection's soundtrack
- most notably Eminem
who produced three of the tracks. "Eminem stopped his own project
to do this work and did it with every bit of humility that could exist
in an artist. He did it from a humble place. He did it as a gift and
he did it to honor Tupac," Afeni gratefully acknowledged.
Those who praise Tupac for his political insight
are wise to give Afeni her due. Responding to a question about Tupac
being a child of the Black Panther Movement, Afeni doesn't mince
words. "Actually, he was a child of mine," she stated.
"I bore him. I carried him in that jail cell,
not the Panther Movement. It was I who did that…. Tupac came with
his mom's baggage and that's probably a more fair way to put it. It's
nicer sometimes for us to look at it gloriously, but look at it
realistically. Tupac came with his mom's Panther baggage…. These
things that other people look at romantically in my day-to-day life
are pain" Afeni forthrightly affirmed.
And because Pac was Afeni's son, she exposed him to
arts, culture, literature and history at a very young age. Pac's
interest in those subjects would continue throughout his life and make
him a hip-hop renaissance man - aspects that are clearly reflected in
the film.
For Afeni, Resurrection serves as a source of
comfort when her heart is heavy. "It's much more difficult to
accept that [Tupac is] not alive than to watch the film. I watch the
film when I feel it's difficult. I have to temper [that difficulty]
with the fact that it's a blessing that I have [the film] because
other mothers whose children are dead don't have that. So, I'm not in
a position to talk about it's difficult. I have to check myself and
say, 'You're blessed,'" she reasoned.
Afeni is equally pragmatic in her approach to
handling disclosures about her substance abuse in the film and in her
son's music. "Tupac has a right to speak about how what I did
affected him. That's his life and his truth," she said.
"What I'm grateful for is his ability to
creatively express that rather than allow it to eat him and to keep
him from achieving. I just love him because that's what he did,"
she beamed.
But Tupac's music career also reached greater
heights when he used his artistic outlet to reconcile his feelings
about his mom in the heart-wrenching testament to maternal love,
"Dear
Mama."
"'Dear Mama' was Tupac's full circle. [Early
in his career,] he was allowed to express himself, his anger, his
frustration, his pain about my drug use and what it did to him and his
sister. Because he was able to do that, he was also able to find his
way to a place where 'Dear Mama' could be written," Afeni
surmised.
"That is indicative of the development that he
made in his journey around his anger over his mom's addiction,"
she added.
And Tupac's fans will note that his aesthetic
journey continued until the time of his death. "I think it's
definitely true that had Tupac lived, he would have reconceived…If
we're sitting here seven years after someone dies and listening to
something someone wrote seven or more years ago and saying it makes
sense today, it's clearly that he was at least prophetic. I don't
think we have to call him a prophet because we don't have that right.
But I think it's clear that he was prophetic. I think that most people
who are prophetic leave here early," Afeni stated intensely.
Despite Tupac's untimely demise, Afeni is hard at
work to assure that his spirit lives on and positively impacts future
generations. Afeni is executive director of the Tupac Amaru Center for
the Arts. Even though some of the proceeds from Resurrection will go
towards renovating the building that houses the Center and developing
other surrounding areas, more is needed. To maintain its independence,
the Center doesn't accept money from foundations and mortgaging the
property would financially constrain the Center. As such, the hope is
that Tupac's fans, dollar by dollar, will donate the necessary funds.
Nevertheless, the Center runs its annual camp for youngsters. For more
information on the Center and to donate, visit
2PacLegacy.com.
M
November 2003
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