Mr. Nelson On the Northside
Producer: Dan D’Or, Michael J. Kirk
Distributor: Kew Media Synopsis The journey to the top was a challenge for the shy kid from a broken home in North Minneapolis. This is the story never before told. In a mixedrace neighbourhood during the Civil Rights movement, Prince found security, musical opportunities and encouragement at a local community center called ‘The Way’. This influence, coupled with the culture and music of the era, gave Prince his passion for music and performance. In this film, Prince’s mentor Spike Moss explains the origin and influences that shaped Prince’s musical skills. Musical icons such as Chuck D, Macy Gray and Chaka Khan recount never before told stories of Prince and how his unique creative form inspired them. His fans share personal experiences of his social media connections and private performances at Paisley Park. Read More
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“This is how we funk on the Northside, got to be bold” - Prince, ‘Northside’
Since Prince Rogers Nelson unexpectedly passed away just over three years ago, the veritable floodgates have opened in terms of tributes, books, and documentaries about his fabled life, with even more coming soon.
Of those, none really focuses sharply on his formative early years and life as a mostly shy, sometimes mischievous, and extremely talented kid growing up in North Minneapolis, until now.
Mr. Nelson On the Northside is an in-progress documentary that plants a foot in Prince’s North Minneapolis neighborhood going into detail about the local community center called The Way, that helped nurture and encourage his fast-developing musical talent.
A workprint of the documentary was recently screened for the neighborhood community at a semi-private affair at Minneapolis North High School (FYI, Prince’s alma mater was not North, but the now-demolished Central High School).
It is unusual and somewhat brave for a director to screen a work that is still being finished, but director/producer Michael Kirk (credited as, and on IMDB as Kirk Fera) was both in town to do a few last interviews and very much wanted the neighborhood’s opinion of the as-is film, as one of his main objectives was to give the community a collective voice, regarding their own musical favorite son.
The film as we saw it, ran approximately ninety minutes, is told mostly chronologically with some nicely done supplemental animated bits, and is peppered with interview portions from known celebrities (some more apropo than others) such as Chaka Khan, Macy Gray, Orianthi, Dennis Quaid, Public Enemy MC Chuck D, Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger, and Living Colour ex-bassist Muzz Skillings.
Localy-based interviews were done with author and on-air personality Andrea Swensson, journalist Neal Karlen, local DJ Walter “Q Bear” Banks Jr, and activist and former director of The Way, Harry “Spike” Moss, with Karlen, Banks, and Moss in attendance for the screening.
As Prince’s star rose and he left Minneapolis to tour the world, so the film leaves the area as well, until near the end when it re-connects with the neighborhood and reveals tentative future plans to re-establish The Way, both here and elsewhere.
Khan (who is also their subject for an upcoming documentary herself) has a good amount of screen time, re-telling the story where she was tricked into going to the studio by Prince over the phone, he masquerading as someone else, and Swensson fills in many details of the developing scene locally, as her 2017 book Got to Be Something Here: The Rise of Minneapolis Sound (Univ of MN Press) begins in the year of Prince’s birth, 1958.
The film’s middle wanders a bit and it tries to wrap his arms around Prince’s global success with some of the interview content more germane to its subject than others, but becomes again compelling as things move full circle back into the neighborhood that spawned him with comments from people like Moss and Banks, that reinforce Prince’s overall value as inspiration to his home community.
“This film explores the man behind the hype – never has a film about Prince included the childhood influences in his life that helped create the genius that he was,” says Kirk in a statement, and it mostly achieves this, though would be unfair to fully review it while it is still in progress.
The documentary’s title itself might be a little confusing to the casual fan, as Mr. Nelson refers to the name Prince first wanted to be known as, before first producer Chris Moon explained to him there was already a more famous Mr. Nelson (Willie), and that his birth name was the natural choice to perform as.
The film will insert a few new interviews and undergo a final editing cut, before it is solicited to streaming, cable, and broadcast channels, with hope for wider and multi-country distribution soon.
Mr. Nelson On the Northside gives a much needed voice to the proud community that helped nurture the talent of a musical one-of-a-kind, a neighborhood that has much to say, but is still rarely asked to speak.
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