Poetic Justice: The Anatomy of a Surrealist Warning on Toxic Masculinity and Racism

“After a heart-stopping event happened to someone close to me, I was encouraged to write into the wound,” says Truman. The rapper decided to put pen to paper, and what resulted was a lengthy poem that follows a man plagued by racism, as he suffers from a heart attack, struggling to accept healthcare from non-white medics. It’s an allegorical tale exploring the idea of predestination versus self-determination – but it’s also a gut wrenching watch. With the poem guiding the narrative, it was filmed on a tiny budget by a group of people who believed the project needed to see the light of day.

The film has been described as both a “trans-generational warning”, and “a lullaby from father to son." Speaking to Dan Keefe, head of We Are Social Studios – who specialise in social-first projects – he explains, “These themes are just one part of a whole host of issues we are experiencing in today's culture.”

He adds, “We wanted to help drive a deeper, more important conversation surrounding masculinity and the expectation among young men in particular to live up to a certain type of
machismo displayed by their fathers.” It acts, therefore, as a cautionary tale to both individuals and their future children.

The story asserts that these issues are often rooted in misplaced fear. “Fear of the other is as old as time, but fortunately, now we live in a world where, through greater transparency and communication, we have a better understanding of those different from ourselves. So there can be no excuse,” Dan tells me.

“Men like the protagonist, Mr. Wrath, are all too familiar,” Dan adds. He recognises that while we have made progress societally, the effects are still visibly present in the culture. “The generation represented by the inner child in the film will hopefully have learned to look on with disdain towards that kind of behaviour and toxicity.”

From the very beginning, the team was determined to tell the story in a way that did it justice, wanting to “draw people in rather than ramming the subject matter down their throats.” While the poem is confronting, the visuals have less hard edges, bringing about a balance that leaves the viewer with space to wonder.

Dan says that difficult subject matter requires boldness. “You can’t start from a position of not wanting to alienate your viewers,” he continues. “You can only serve the subject matter and storytelling, and hope that you bring people along as a result.“

The director of the film, David Leon, echoes Dan’s point about serving the narrative. “With this film in particular, it felt like there was a version that could have been very literal. But given the confronting nature of the story, it felt more interesting to find a way to immerse the audience with the visceral nature of what Mr. Wrath is going through,” he explains. They wanted things to unravel in waves, presenting a fever dream as the main character experiences it, while combining the elements of visual language with the sound and lighting.

“Once the worlds were defined as being a descent into hell, it allowed me to become more experimental with the transition from one moment to another,” says David. “For example, the animal heads are a metaphor for the racial slurs that he used throughout his life, then being the things that stood in the way of life, resulting in death.”

There is also a moment of reincarnation, representing a flash of atonement which arrives all too late. Each of the stages and elements stack together as building blocks, “and are always led by story and character, so that the world created would be a reflection of the themes around which it was built.”

The team who worked on the production had worked together previously on a piece of longer-form work, so that foundation of trust was already there. Dan tells me this meant they were able to achieve a level of ambition despite the lack of budget and resources.

“Truman was born and brought up within a stone’s throw of all the locations we used,” Dan tells me. As such, it was important to Truman that they stay in that vicinity, given how deeply intimate the topic was.

“We used Hoxton Hall for the later stages of the film, and they were incredibly happy to support the project given the personal angle,” says Dan. “So, it generated a kind of community level of support, where people bought into the story we were trying to tell, and were therefore happy to help out.”

Given that the film was not-for-profit, Dan also says this approach opened up avenues that wouldn’t typically be on offer when shooting a commercial.

It also helped that David has worked with Truman previously. “We have built a very trusting dynamic over the course of several projects, and it's a relationship I value immensely.”

David adds that he and Truman share a similar worldview and innate taste, which makes for a seamless collaboration, but that it's the complete faith Truman exudes that makes things really shine. “He’s incredibly generous, enthusiastic, and will happily take your lead when going in bold, original directions. As a director, that feels freeing, which is the only good way to work.”

In the final analysis, the team produced something they all look at with pride. A film that today, feels more necessary than ever.