With films like Cocaine Cowboys, Limelight and The U, director Billy Corben has documented the lives of cavalier drug smugglers, unrepentant nightclub impresarios and swaggering college athletes subjects who rose to power and, inevitably, fell from grace.
But his new film, Dawg Fight, is different. A documentary about the brutal backyard fights staged in the impoverished community of West Perrine, Florida, it is less about the rise to the top as it is the permanent social stasis that keeps people on the bottom. The fight footage is plentiful, gory and uniformly horrifying, yet this is actually a film about people, poverty and the push to succeed against all odds.
Corben, who resides in South Florida, began working on the project six years ago during that time, two of the fighters featured in his film died and struggled to find distribution. But today, Dawg Fight finally makes its debut on Netflix, and the director spoke to Rolling Stone about the men willing to risk it all in the ring, and why those who focus purely on the punching are missing the point.
Many of your films tend to focus on those on the fringes of society drug dealers, iconoclastic football players, etc. Yet, to me, they all seem to be about the same thing: the pursuit of the American Dream. Do you agree?
The alternate American Dream is certainly a recurring theme in my docs, but the more I think about it, in terms of where we are in history, maybe these movies are about the death of the American Dream, and the kind of warped priorities and perverse incentives that have completely altered the perception and reality of the American Dream. Dawg Fight certainly feels that way. In Miami, theres a whole underground economy the flea markets, the fight clubs, the gambling that exists outside the realm of what we, as a society, understand. There are people making a living below the poverty level by doing things that arent illegal, per se. Thats the reality of where they come from. People who have seen the film have told me, Shit, that doesnt even look like America, it looks like the Third World, and it is, to a degree. Miami-Dade has the second-highest income disparity in the country, we have the second-highest rate of food stamp usage in the country. The Florida of today is the America of tomorrow its a case study. You want to know what shit is going to go down in America over the next couple decades, just look at Miami: immigration, drugs, Medicare fraud, tax I.D. fraud, Ponzi schemes, mortgage fraud, sea-level rise you name it, and its already happened here.
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So this isnt just a film about bare-knuckle brawls. Its about the environment that encourages them.
Id say so. Recently, someone said to me, Oh, the children. Theyre attending these fights because in the film, we use footage of kids sitting ringside, singing along to the more profane hip-hop verses that are being played in the backyard, shadowboxing with each other in the ring between fights and this person was pearl clutching, talking about, The cycle of violence in the inner city. This film is about fighting, but in a larger sense, its about these poor black men who are trying to make a living and fight their way out of these circumstances. So to hear someone talk about The cycle of violence, and to turn on the TV and see rich old white men going to war for money or oil, it becomes apparent that, when young black men are involved, its an issue, but its not when its old, rich white dudes who send poor people to war for money.
We have a violent culture; its not indigenous to young black men. The real cycle of violence is like this: Baltimore is the seventh most-dangerous city in America, so they need a proactive police force; but because they have a proactive police force, they also have the seventh most-dangerous city in America. Theres no answer other than more policing, or locking human beings in cages, or killing them in the streets extrajudicially, without judges or juries. Thats our answer in this country, were meeting violence with violence. And that, to me, is the conversation I want to have after Dawg Fight that America is headed towards Thunderdome.
Yet theres a scene in the film where police show up at one of the fights, but let it continue
Well, thats how it used to work that was in, like, 2009. A lot has changed since then, and not for the better. Back then, it was community policing at its finest. The police would take stock of the neighborhood, go, The streets are quiet, theres no crime, and what was happening? Dada was having an event. And that was a calculation on their part We know that, for a few hours on Saturday, the only violence occurring in the neighborhood is in a 12-by-12 ring between consenting adults. They understood that it was illegal and unsanctioned, but they knew they had to police a community, not just enforce laws that legislators come up with in Tallahassee or Washington, D.C.
Now, unfortunately, we have the Miami-Dade Crime Suppression Team, which almost exclusively arrests young black men for marijuana not for dealing, but for a joint. CBS Miami just did a big expos on it, and some of the stuff is unbelievable. In a community where only 27 percent of the population is black, 67 percent of the people arrested are black. Ninety-six percent of their arrests were for non-violent offenses, and they have an 11-percent conviction rate. In Miami, we have, like, 34 or 35 different municipalities in this county, and theyre each represented by a different flag, so its very easy for people to say, If it happens in Little Haiti, it doesnt affect me in Hialeah. If it happens in Liberty City, what does it have to do with me in Aventura? Theres a disconnect thats dangerous.
You just mentioned Dhafir Dada 5000 Harris. Hes the central figure in the film, the man behind the backyard fights, and as such, you could say hes a community leader, or you could say hes a criminal since these fights are technically illegal. What was your take?
I always called him the Mayor of Perrine. He has that kind of gravitational and calming force; hes kind of like an anchor. No one wants to fuck up and piss Dada off. He has a line in the film where he says, I dont consider this violence, I consider this an alternative to violence, which I think is a very compelling discussion. He has a degree in early childhood education, he worked for the Department of Children and Families as an investigator, going into homesso he has a really interesting background. He might not have the background for politics, but I think on a community level, hes a force for good, and hes known that way by local authorities. When I first met him, I was struck by how incredibly warm, welcoming and charismatic he was of course, he was very interested in us raising his profile, covering The big one, as he put it: His fight after the MLK Day parade.
What was it like filming that fight?
I wanted to treat it like it was an action movie, basically; we had nine cameras going in the backyard, on the roof, a 30-foot jib, one on Dada at all times, one on the crowd, one on each fighter. So I was shooting, and we were picking up people everywhere to shoot, anybody that could hold a camera. I remember the neighbors brought out the barbecue drum and the fryer, put up card tables with menus it was like a block party, and then you have these two grown men stepping inside 12-by-12 ring, and you put Dada in there as the ref, and then they start throwing fists at each other. Its like two helicopters just going.
And were all pressed against the ropes, Im covering the northeast corner of the ring, and Mike Trujillo and Chocolate start fighting and theres this huge knockout. And in that moment, Mikes head lands not three feet from me, and Im on my knee filming, theres blood on the camera, it was a very surreal moment. Youre filming it, and theres this disconnect because youre looking through a lens, but then youd look up and he was lying right there. And there was a chance he might not get up, ever, and I thought, Oh my God, hes dead, or paralyzed. And you think about his family, and you think of the guy who knocked him out, and you think, Hes going to jail. Dadas going to jail. Our footage is evidence. The life of everybody in the backyard flashed before my eyes.
In your opinion, was it the stars of the film, or the subject matter than made it difficult for you to find distribution?
Were not Bruckheimer successful, but we had some success with Cocaine Cowboys and the 30 for 30 films, so I was feeling good about this one. And people started watching the rough cut, and they were like, Holy shit, this is your best work No, I wont buy it. My three favorite rejections were, Too violent, too urban, too real. It was this galvanizing rejection. This was unabashed, completely uncensored urban culture, and that was the problem: People were petrified of that. Theres no Dana White, theres no Roger Goodell. None of those guys are there to tell you its OK. That scared people, but thats what I liked so much about this project; its what I liked so much about The U, it was a bunch of guys who just didnt give a fuck. So we had decided we were going to self-distribute it, because we had already invested all this time and our own dime, and we wanted people to see it, to know the struggle. And then Netflix came to the rescue! They were like, Well fucking show this! And that was extraordinary.
Are you concerned that people will focus on the violence in the film, and perhaps miss the larger points youre trying to make?
Its almost like these are hollow victories; they win a fight and then its like, Now what? I saw fighters make as little as $200 in the backyard, because its based on what they get from the gate, and theres some gambling too, but youre like, Shit, thats it? Even when these guys go pro, yes, theyre licensed by the state, they have real promoters and trainers, but now what? Even if you win, youre not going to do this until youre 60. Theres not really any long-term goals. For the fighters, the goal is feeding their children today. Thats success to them. One fight at a time, literally or metaphorically. Theres an inherent tragedy in that, and I hope people see that. Maybe thats not the only option these fighters have, but they believe it is, so isnt that part of the tragedy? This is their perception of their place in the world.
Since you wrapped the film, Dadas backyard fights have been shut down, but hes continued on with the BYB Extreme Fighting series. Are you aware of the event hes planning next month?
Yeah, Dada is living the sequel right now. Unfortunately, we kind of raised the profile of his fights, and authorities had no choice but to crack down on him. So he was at a crossroads: go back underground, or go legit. So he formed the fight league; hes training the fighters, and hell have medical attention for a change. And yeah, I heard that hes planning go out on this boat and have fights in international waters, in a triangle-shaped ring on the top deck of this cruise ship! Its fucking nuts, but if you knew Dada was going to do something, he was going to do it big.
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