Over the past several months Boston Beatdown has been the center of controversy and confusion stemming from the release of our documentary film entitled “See the World Through Our Eyes, Volume II.” While it is not my intention, at this time, to detail every aspect of the documentary, I would like to address several issues that persist despite our best efforts to provide explanation and answers.

NEITHER BOSTON BEATDOWN NOR ANY OF THE PARTIES REPRESENTED IN THE DOCUMENTARY INSTIGATED ANY ACT OF VIOLENCE FOR THE SAKE OF VIDEO FOOTAGE.

The violent acts contained in the documentary were collected over the span of many years and were filmed in a variety of locations. None of the acts of violence were encouraged by or instigated by anyone affiliated with the production of the documentary. The mere suggestion that we, in any way, fostered or provoked the incidents is insulting to the hard work and effort put forth by everyone involved in the production of the film.

We understand that for some of you the violence is unsettling. But the film is a documentary. It is an objective look into the underground Boston hardcore scene as seen through the eyes of local hardcore kids. The fact that violence is an aspect of the reality of the people and culture we documented was reason enough for us to include it in the film.

Some of the fights included on the documentary were filmed at concerts – fights happen at concerts. In that respect, hardcore is no different than most music cultures. And for those of you whose instincts tell you to refute this don’t embarrass yourselves by pointing to a “non-violent music” culture that centers itself around illegal drug use. (Fistfights leave bruises and broken bones – drug overdoses leave kids dead).

The remainder of the violent footage was collected while filming amidst the busy nightlife of Boston’s Lansdowne Street. With our cameras focused on drunken bar patrons, drunken college students, and drunken Red Sox fans, capturing physical confrontation on film was not a difficult task. In fact, the violent footage we included on our documentary was a miniscule percent of the total violence that took place on that street. Specifically, we focused our attention solely on what we understood to be physical altercations between the above mentioned groups and hardcore kids. And, I am quite certain that any witnesses to these altercations will attest to the fact that the hardcore kids were not responsible for provoking any of the violent instances.

If you truly believe that the city’s hardcore scene is violent, contemplate standing outside one of the many clubs on Lansdowne Street on a Friday or Saturday night. If you can manage to maneuver yourself around the intoxicated eighteen year old college freshmen staggering in and out of the clubs, you may be “fortunate” enough to witness a stabbing, shooting, or all out gang brawl. But don’t worry too much – since hardcore kids were banned by the police and the club owners from even so much as walking down the street, you certainly won’t find yourself confronted with any really “dangerous” kids…

Of course, if gang brawls and knife fights don’t do the trick, try walking around Fenway Park after a Red Sox-Yankees series.

I’m not trying to escape criticism by shifting your attention, but all this really begs the question: If all these fights are happening inside and outside of the city’s nightclubs and bars, why has nobody placed blame on the club owners and promoters? Why is it that the outrage only began once the City and club owners could no longer deny what has been happening on that street for years?

Instead of blaming hardcore kids for the violence, why has no one investigated the police reports from incidences that took place on that street over the last several years? Or better yet, why has no one looked into the various clubs’ incident reports? If FSU or any other hardcore group was responsible for the incidents, surely common sense would dictate that mention of them would have been included in the reports.

In fact, for those of you who truly believe that we were responsible for instigating or encouraging fights for the sake of video footage, I beg you to point to the police reports corresponding to those instances? In fact, I beg you to even find the police reports corresponding to those incidents.

And, finally, for those of you who think it too “coincidental” that we were able to capture the footage, please consider this: The total of less than seven minutes of violent content contained on our DVD was removed from almost 300 hours of video tape.

Now, on to the second point:

BOSTON BEATDOWN IS AN INDEPENDENT FILM COMPANY – AND ONLY AN INDEPENDENT FILM COMPANY. BOSTON BEATDOWN IS NOT FSU AND FSU IS NOT BOSTON BEATDOWN.

FSU, to the extent that the group relates to Boston Beatdown provided us with on-camera interviews and background information relating to the history and social evolution of the underground hardcore music scene. As the group was highly influential in the hardcore music scene, they were an important aspect of the documentary. However,

DO NOT LET THE MEDIA FOOL YOU INTO BELIEVING THAT YOU ARE WATCHING MEMBERS OF FSU ENGAGED IN STREET FIGHTS AND BRAWLS.

They are misleading you. They are fraudulently presenting unrelated images taken from our film under the pretense that they are FSU related street brawls.

Furthermore, it was not our intention to insinuate that FSU was behind any of the violence shown on the DVD. Members of FSU provided interviews because they were and continue to be a highly significant and influential group within the hardcore community. They are or have been founders of some of the most notable and legendary hardcore bands, they have organized hundreds of concerts, put together charity events and benefit shows, and have provided safety and security at shows. Most importantly, they have been around to witness the evolution of the hardcore scene. While others have come and gone, they have been a staple of the community.

So, to move on…

It’s pretty funny that FOX news aired a segment on us entitled “Profiting from Violence” yet exploited the very violence they condemned in order to boost their own ratings. It’s pretty funny that the network ran compiled fight footage from the film all day prior to the news segment yet intentionally removed from the segment the fact that we haven’t made a single penny off of the film. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to sit in front of a news camera for two hours and then have thirty seconds worth of sentence fragments taken out of context and aired as my response.

I’ve tried to explain our side of the story, but apparently the “story” they are looking for isn’t in the truth.

It is not and never was our intention to “profit from violence” nor was it ever our intention to promote violence. All we intended was to put together a documentary about a real life aspect of society what we considered fascinating and intriguing - a subculture of real people that slipped through the cracks of social awareness. We never intended the film to reach the mass of people that it did, and in hindsight I am regretful of the fact that we did not gear it towards that audience so as to better explain the background and history of the subculture. The truth is that the film was meant to be released into the hands of other hardcore kids; kids who felt they were alone in the world. We wanted to let them know it’s okay for them to be themselves, that they are not alone.

But your judgment of us and the culture we presented is the same judgment that pushed these kids away from society in the first place; that led them to feel like outcasts and pariahs in their own homes, schools, and communities. Hardcore was and is a place for them to turn – to feel welcome and normal - and now that judgment is contributing to the stigmatization of that too.

If you don’t like the music, you’re entitled to your opinion. The same holds true if you don’t like the style of dress, piercings or tattoos. But, if you’re jumping on the bandwagon to condemn us or hardcore kids because of something you saw or heard on the news or third hand from a friend please consider the message you are sending – that it’s okay to judge someone or something without knowing anything about them.

Think about the millions of human lives that have been lost as a result of that exact line of thinking. Think about the struggles this country has gone through to escape the horrors of that line of thinking. Think about a time in your own life when you were made to feel like an outcast simply because someone else didn’t understand you. No one is asking you to condone violence, at least, certainly not us. But don’t allow some self interested party to fool you into believing that condemning us is synonymous with condemning violence.

Perhaps, we were naïve to think that judgment would be reserved until after the truth was sought. Perhaps, we were wrong to believe that our critics would take the time to search deeper into the meaning of our film and not simply perch themselves above its superficial images.

Perhaps, it is no more a credit to the media than it is an attribute of society. For in this day and age there is no truth, no tragedy, no anything beyond that which we are privy to witness with our own two eyes. For this is a day and age in which out curtains are drawn to the world and reality exists only so much as it is fed to us through fiber optic cables and television sets.

If all you took from this film was the violence, then I apologize, because as the film’s editor and producer, I obviously failed.

So, to those who will stand and judge us now, I ask only that watch the film before you do. Make up your own mind. Judge us with your opinion, free from the agenda and sensationalism of the media and other third parties.

I am not asking you to embrace the hardcore culture nor am I asking that you accept it.
But, for so many kids, hardcore is something for them to hold onto – it is something to help them get through the rough patches of their lives. And you may not understand it, you may not like it, and you may not agree with it, but those reasons are not enough to condemn it.

So, what is it about Boston Beatdown that both the city and the media have fixated themselves on? What is it that we have done to deserve this constant attention? Less than two weeks ago a man was murdered on the doorstep of the Paradise Night Club on Commonwealth Ave, only yards away from an undergraduate Boston University dormitory. The police were notified of the quarrel that led to the man’s death over 20 minutes before he was shot in the head. The police did not respond. Somehow, neither the murder itself nor the untimely police response were given any notable mention in the news.

So, why is it that the murder of a man on a popular street, in front of a popular nightclub, can go unnoticed, with as little attention drawn to it as possible by the media, yet a documentary film that includes only minutes of isolated fistfights that have occurred over the span of years can make the news over and over again?

We have done nothing that any other film or journalistic company wouldn’t have done in our position. We documented the reality – truthfully and honestly as it unfolded before our eyes.

- Ronin Morris

Boston Beatdown, Inc.