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Winner of 11 Emmy® Awards, Jon Alpert received international acclaim for his work in Iraq during the Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Cuba, the former Soviet Union and the Philippines. Alpert is also responsible for some of HBO's most memorable America Undercover documentaries including "One Year in the Life of Crime" ('89), "Lock-Up: The Prisoners of Rikers Island" ('94), "High on Crack Street: Lost Lives of Lowell" ('95), "A Cinderella Season: The Lady Vols Fight Back" ('98), "Life of Crime 2" ('98) and "Papa" ('02). He's also the Co-Director and Founder of Downtown Community TV in New York, a non-profit organization that teaches people, particularly members of low-income and minority communities, to produce insightful and artistic television.
INTERVIEW WITH JON ALPERT
HBO: What inspired you to make this film?
JON: I remember reading about King Tone-- I think it was in the New York Times-- and the article described him as a potential working-class hero. Someone who had risen from the streets of New York, who had transformed himself, and was in the process of transforming the Latin Kings. I got excited because having lived here in New York City for 35 years and having been very active in community organizing, the idea of a real working-class hero, somebody who is actually trying to help people in his or her neighborhood is always very exciting. We've all seen a lot of demagogues and a lot of exploiting politicians. It's disappointing that we have not been able to make our city a better place for all people, especially for people from marginalized communities. The fact that there appeared to be a leader who was mobilizing people who had previously been disenfranchised was inspiring. That's when I became interested, when I heard the rumors about King Tone rising from the streets of Brooklyn to improve the lives of poor people.
HBO: How did you approach King Tone about the project?
JON: I went out to visit King Tone in Bushwick. I actually hadn't been in Bushwick that many times before. If you live in Manhattan you maybe pass it on a shortcut on your way to Kennedy airport but you don't hang out there. At that time King Tone was under house arrest and wasn't able to leave the stoop of the apartment building he was staying in. I told him about the work that we do at Downtown Community Television Center. We take poor kids from all over the city and give them free classes. We give them equipment. We are committed to making the city a better place through media. I was curious to hear what he was going to do. He was describing how he was going to get kids registered to vote, he was going to stop violence, stop police brutality, get kids to go back to school. It all sounded pretty neat, so I said, "If this is true I'd like to make a documentary about what you're doing. I think that this can help a lot of people, it can take kids away from crime and drugs and give them more opportunities. But before I start I want you to look me in the eye and I want you to tell me that you're really on the level. Because the cops say that this is all a smoke screen, that you're really a nasty gang member, and that this is all a diversionary tactic." Tone said, "This is all on the level. I'm for real." I said, "I want to do this documentary. I'm going to spend 24 hours a day seven days a week with you making this film. I will find out whether you're for real or not. I've been so disappointed by the outcome of our most recent documentaries in which we were rooting for people to overcome their drug problems or to stay in school or to finally achieve something in their lives. In our last program, in the end, everybody slipped. It's just devastating when that happens. I don't think that I can handle another one of these disasters. I would rather make a film that inspires people rather than a film that is a cautionary tale." Tone said, "No, you don't have to worry about me. I'm for real." So we arranged to do the documentary at that point.
HBO: Why do you think King Tone was willing to be part of this documentary?
JON: I don't know if King Tone thought he could keep his more nefarious activities hidden. He had been able to do this with other media people who had not stuck with him for as long as we did. I think that towards the end, when everything was crumbling, he realized that the movie wasn't turning out the way he would have liked. By then it was too late for him to do anything about it. It was too late for me to do anything about it. It wasn't turning out the way I would have liked it to turn out either. But that was real life. Politicians also delude themselves into believing everything that they're saying. They compartmentalize their lives. There is a political side and a private side. So I think King Tone felt he had a public life as a leader rallying people against drugs, and then he had a private life in which he was involved in drug deals. And one of the sad things about this film is it fits into a body of work that we've done for HBO that really shows the horrific destructive nature of drugs in our society. In Life of Crime One we see a whole squadron of people throwing their lives away and ruining the lives of their children because of drugs. In High on Crack Street, we see very intelligent people who had very productive careers ruining their lives and a whole town ruining itself because of drugs. In Life of Crime Two, we see the same thing. King Tone is somebody who could have helped thousands of thousands people. He tossed it way on a penny-ante drug deal. This part doesn't make sense to me. If you are the leader of the Latin Kings and sitting on top of an army of 6,000 people, why in the world are you the lookout for a drug deal? You stay home and someone else is the lookout and you just rake off the money. The whole deal that sent him to jail has never made any sense to anybody; even the cops can't figure it out. One of the explanations is that he needed to make his rent payments. He needed a quick hit of cash and dealing drugs is lucrative. When you go into the neighborhoods where King Tone was working that's the industry. He probably could have netted a couple thousand dollars standing outside of that bodega. Maybe he just did it once. Pretty stupid but that's what seemed to have happened.
HBO: What do you hope that the audience walks away with?
JON: I wish there were a more positive message in the film. But this is more a cautionary tale. We have to be aware of false prophets. People who are engaged in the type of political and social work that King Tone aspired to need to have a saintliness and can't be duplicitous. If you are such a saint, saints accomplish miracles. And there are miracles that are still waiting to be accomplished. Perhaps the real miracle worker is out there and that will be the next film we make.
HBO: You were surrounded by people accused of crimes from drug-dealing to murder. And at one point King Tone suggests that you may wind up losing your head like another one of the fallen Latin Kings. Did you ever feel in danger?
JON: In the beginning we didn't have that much trouble. We hung around every day with King Tone. This is a very claustrophobic film. It's unfortunate that he was under house arrest when we started. I thought he was going to beat this charge, be freed, start roaming around the City, start organizing, because that's what he was doing before we started filming. He was going to the Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island, rallying the Latin Kings. They're marching in streets, they're demanding better schools. That would have been a really exciting film. In fact, we wound up like 16 scorpions in a little box because he was in his apartment all the time. As nice a guy as I am, if I'm in a room with you 24 hours, seven days a week, it's going to start to grate on you. It didn't grate so much on King Tone but there were Latin Kings who didn't think it was a smart idea to do this documentary. The Latin Kings in general have a prohibition against any interaction with the media. King Tone is a sort of reformist Latin King and there was always tension in the gang because of that. Many people not only resented King Tone's moments in the limelight but they thought it was against gang policy and just stupid because it would bring attention. These guys knew that they were selling drugs and that they were shooting people and thought that eventually this media spotlight would backfire. There were one or two Latin Kings who always threatened us and I got really tired of it. After about four months of constant threats I said, "Listen, I really don't like this atmosphere. Let's make a deal. Let's rent a hall and set up a boxing ring or a wrestling ring, sell tickets, and give the money to charity. I will fight any Latin King who is approximately my age. And Little Mariya, who is the associate producer on this and is about five foot one, she'll fight any Latin Queen. If we win you guys have to shut up and let us pursue this documentary. If we lose we'll walk away, give up the program, and you'll get the satisfaction of seeing us beaten up." The problem was that there wasn"t a Latin King my age who was still alive who could really walk. They die young, they get shot, they get AIDS, they are incarcerated. So within the small pool of potential combatants, as infirm as I am, they couldn't come up with anyone to battle me. And even though Mariya is a pip squeak, they took one look at her and realized she was a real tough cookie. They didn't accept the challenge. But the fact that we were willing to fight on their terms won us a bit more acceptance. Still, a couple of Latin Kings who are real nasty characters continued to threaten me even after the film was made. They sent messages saying that they knew that I had filmed something and they wanted me to cut this out. Fortunately or unfortunately lots of people who are in the film know where I live and work. We made this film because we were part of the New York community and we were interested in a person who was doing something to improve it. We're still part of the New York community. There's no place for us to hide if anybody doesn't like the film. But we certainly didn't make the film with any malicious intent. We made it because we were initially inspired by what we thought King Tone represented. He was doing some really good things. And that's one of the reasons why this is such a tragic story. Because people listened him, people changed their behavior because of him, people enlightened themselves because of him and in the end, he engineered his own demise.
HBO: So what's happening now with the Latin King members we met in the film?
JON: King Tone is in a federal prison down south. I don't know if he'd want
me to reveal the exact location. If viewers wish to communicate with him - I'll forward the letters. I haven't been in contact with Myrna --but have been told that she has moved back to Connecticut. Hector Torres, King Tone's advisor, died a few months ago. For a time he was homeless and used to come to our studios to sleep on the couch and eat. Few Kings attended his wake or funeral. King Ceelo is still in Jail. King Jun is in jail. King Roc has left the Kings and hasn't been around. King Skee Bee might be attending the HBO screening. Ron Kuby will attend the HBO screening. He has strongly endorsed the film. He is now quite famous as a radio personality. Diana Rodriguez is still the assistant district attorney of Brooklyn.
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