Undun: The Roots’ Short Film

By Beatriz Areilza / December 15th, 2011 in Film / Philadelphia / 239 views

Rather than go down the traditional music video route, Jimmy Fallon’s house band, Philadelphia-based hip hop outfit The Roots recruited filmmaker Clifton Bell to direct a nine-minute short film featuring four tracks from their critically acclaimed new album ‘Undun‘.

Previous to the release, the band had already released the four highlights for the LP in short visual snippets. This is The Roots’ first concept album and it tells the story of fictional character called Redford Stephens—a black kid from Philadelphia who becomes a drug dealer—named after the song Redford by Sufjan Stevens, who cameos on the album.

According to the band in a recent interview for Billboard, the moral behind this story is not about drugs but about survival instinct when you are facing a difficult circumstance.

“The moral is that this can happen to anyone, just based on circumstance. If you’re from where I’m from (Philadelphia) and you experience what I experienced or what this character has experienced, it can very well happen to you. And it’s not always a bad person with bad intention that goes through this kind of thing or meets their end in this way, either.”

The film takes place from 1990 to 1999 and is structured in four chapters. Each chapter is introduced by a quote and is backed by one of the tracks, setting the mood for each part of this sad story. To the tunes of Sleep, Stomp, Tip the Scale, Make My, Bell shows in beautiful black and white visuals how Redford Stephens lives his life. It’s the full picture of the character’s evolution as he grows into a criminal in a drug dealing world, and faces a fatal ending.

After more than ten years in the business, the Roots still live up to expectations. Not only they have released a fantastic LP, but they have also surprised us with some magic by pushing the boundaries to make music live on beyond the album.

“It could be a play or a full-length feature or a short or an iPad app that’s more involved than the one that accompanies this record. The idea that those possibilities exist are why we approached (‘Undun’) that way; we want there to be an option for the music to be able to live on if we choose to take it there.”

Undun is available now on Itunes and the App Store. And who knows, maybe it will soon be available for your iPad, or premiering at your nearest cinema.