El Cerrito native Justin Tipping has directed his first feature film.
Justin Tipping seems like a nice young man.
Neatly dressed, bespectacled and soft-spoken, the winner of the Student Academy Award Bronze Medal and the Director’s Guild Student Award comes across as thoughtful and sincere. Film nerd through and through. Maybe that’s why the El Cerrito native’s first feature, the Richmond- and Oakland-set, urban coming-of-age tale “Kicks,” owes more to “The Bicycle Thief ” than to “Boyz n the Hood.”
“In my teenage years, I grew up with a level of anxiety every day: ‘How am I going to avoid a fight today? How am I going to avoid this part of El Cerrito High?’ I wanted the viewer to have that same anxiety when watching the movie,” says the movie’s director and co-writer, in an alleyway cafe in Los Angeles’ Arts District.
“Kicks” starts as a wistful slice of life, as youthful protagonist Brandon (newcomer Jahking Guillory) whiles away his days with buddies Albert (Christopher Jordan Wallace) and Rico (Christopher Meyer) at their Richmond high school. Then his prized sneakers are brutally stolen by thug Flaco (Kofi Siriboe). Brandon’s friends follow as the runt of the litter charges for Oakland to somehow take back those Air Jordans. The characters ride BART into some moral gray areas.
Tipping has acknowledged that the inciting incident is based on something that happened to him — he was beaten and robbed, and by way of comfort, his brother told him he was now a man.
“I never wanted to be preachy,” says Tipping, “but I wanted to reach audiences who don’t realize this happens every day. People get jacked for their iPods, their necklaces, their shoes, whatever, every day. So how do you address it? I wanted to start a conversation of ‘How do you end the cycle of violence?’ It’s intertwined with the cycle of poverty, too.
“I don’t think those themes are explicitly stated in the movie; I just wanted to put the audience in an immersive situation and let them experience it, much like ‘The Bicycle Thief.’ I watched that movie, and I think I understood the emotional stakes of that bike to that family, and the state of the class system.”
The idea for the film had been kicking around Tipping’s head since 2009. He always knew he wanted to set it in Richmond.
“Growing up, everyone I knew was essentially from Richmond,” he says. “Richmond’s a superunique place. There’s a rich history, an interesting socioeconomic dynamic. It was one of those postWorld War II port cities. I know of one other movie set there, ‘Coach Carter,’ but I don’t think the studio shot it there.”
The Richmond scenes for “Kicks” were largely shot at Nichol Park and near Lovonya DeJean Middle School. Some locations came straight from reality.
“One of my best friends growing up is in the Richmond Fire Department, and we drove down that cul de sac (in the film), and he said, ‘This is where kids get jumped all the time.’ When I heard that, I knew that had to be it.
“Literally everywhere we went, people had a story. ‘I saw a kid get jumped outside my house.’ ‘A kid got shot over here by Nichol Park.’ So I think another reason the community embraced us was it was a relatable story.”
That embrace was key to the production’s success despite the lack of filmmaking infrastructure in Richmond and Oakland — along with other concerns.
“There were local news broadcasters in Oakland getting robbed a week or two before we started shooting,” he says. “The producers were freaking out.
“But we had cast kids from the community. … It also helped that Biggie Smalls’ son (Wallace, whose late rapper father was also known as Notorious B.I.G.) was in the movie. People got wind of that. And his chaperone was Lil’ Cease from Junior M.A.F.I.A., so people would want to just come out and hang out.”
That reality check was appropriate, in a way, for a film that makes a tonal shift when it departs from the characters’ home city (“I’d originally written ‘Oakland’ as East Oakland, but I realized it looked very similar to Richmond,” says Tipping. “So we ended up going to the Lower Bottoms.”).
Tipping admires “Boyz n the Hood” director John Singleton, but cites Vittorio De Sica (“The Bicycle Thief ”), Wong Kar-wai (“In the Mood for Love”), Andrea Arnold (“Fish Tank”), the “bittersweetness of Spike Jonze” and the dreamy introspection of Terrence Malick as key cinematic influences. However, when things get gritty, it’s the mark of Martin Scorsese that comes through.
“Violence distances you when it’s too cartoony. Even in the edit — how many times should he get hit? As soon as it’s one too many, it starts to get unrealistic,” says Tipping.
“Although there’s comedic elements and it’s funny, it always had to get serious whenever violence was involved. We wanted to take it as seriously as we could, the real ramifications of gun violence. This happens every day. Kids in the cast were like, ‘I can get a gun any time I want.’ ”