So, Hulu, I have questions for you and the documentarians. Why was this documentary not divided into three or four parts? I was going to do a “Deep Dive,” but the more I thought about it, I had more to say about the progression of the documentary, the people in it, and what I didn’t see. So, review it is!
First and foremost, the event was originally called Freaknic. I love how the documentary starts with the reunion of the founders of Freaknic. They tell us the origin of the name as well as why we even have this as part of the nostalgia of Atlanta in the 90’s. Hulu and documentary people, we did not get enough time with these founders. I wasn’t properly introduced to them. I only know the schools they attended based on their supers and one founder was wearing a Spelman sweater. I know the group must have come from the DMV area because they were part of the DC Metro club at the AU, but I wanted a real origin story. This would have been the first hour of a three or four part series. I also want to note two random things. First, the DMV is why you have a Freaknic. Put some respect on that, Atlanta! Also, I watched an interview with Jermaine Dupri where he said Georgia has four HBCU’s. I want to correct him. According to HBCU Alum, Georgia has 10 HBCU’s. Now, he may have meant that there are four in close proximity, but that’s not what he said, so I wanted to go ahead and correct that. Alabama and North Carolina have WAY more HBCU’s than Georgia, so do with that what you will. If you want to celebrate Freaknic the right way, I thought it only right to spend a little more time with the people who came up with the idea. Where did they come from? What brought them to Atlanta? What brought the five or six of them together? These were questions I had that were not answered in the documentary and I think they just didn’t have the time to spend on it because wasn’t broken up into parts.
The next section I would have liked to see if this was broken up into parts would have been the rise of Freaknic, which would lead us into the 90’s. This is where we would talk about the theme of sexual freedom, the introduction of the world to Atlanta through this event, and the growing of this event beyond college students. This was the bulk of the current doc. Here are the issues I had during this section. We had ONE woman, Rasheeda (hey girl!), talking about the sexual freedom of women at this time. Every other person who talked about the women at this event were men and that bothered me to no end. I don’t want to hear what you saw these women do and tell me how you thought they felt. You are not a woman and I need more than just Rasheeda to tell me about that. I also noticed that the spelling of Freaknic changed from Freaknic (in the 80’s) to Freaknik (in the 90’s). Why? It’s a small thing but it’s a big thing especially because you’ve explained the origin of the name of this event.
Moving to the evolution of this event into what it’s known for now and going back to Jermaine Dupri, he said that he had to have Luke to be apart of this doc and Luke had to have JD to agree in order to have his support. Based on what I saw, we didn’t even need them. For Luke and JD to be so instrumental in the fabric of Southern culture and music, we got a snippet of both of them, but I want an origin story. Luke just kind of popped in and was like, “It was called Freaknik and I was freaky so I came.” There was a snippet of BIG and Craig Mack on a stage at Freaknik. Some archival footage shows a man telling a woman through a car window that Luke is performing somewhere near Piedmont Park. What no one told me in this doc is where the stage came from? We went from a picnic gathering amongst Southern college students to basically a festival. Who provided this stage with a working microphone? NO ONE TOLD ME. That bothered me.
We mentioned music and the strip club in Atlanta. We spent 2.5 seconds on each. Southern hip hop and Magic City are so integral to Atlanta culture and we did not explore that as long as they should have. Another reason why this should have been a series. I know JD says they will do a Magic City documentary, but this would have been a nice catalyst to that documentary when it comes out. It seemed like the strip club was the place to be in the 90’s because it was a strip club. That’s all I got from it and I had questions.
The last section of my pretend documentary of Freaknik would, obviously, be the decline and end of this legacy. I’m going to make an assertion here. Freaknik was shut down because of Atlanta hosting the Olympics. That’s it. I’m going to go out on a limp here and say it didn’t have that much to do with a bunch of Black people. Here is the evidence behind that. They let this event take over the city for so many years UNTIL the WORLD was going to be coming to Atlanta. I just believe that Atlanta cared more about the image of the city outside of the city, if that makes sense. Do what you want while no one is watching, but now that we have the world coming to see us, we have to clean this mess up. That’s what I got from the documentary.
I also wanted one or two more stories from someone who had been assaulted or knew someone who was at Freaknik. I was glad they addressed this in general because as I was watching I said, “If they don’t address the real wild times, there will be another documentary that will overshadow this one.” Did they do a good job at showcasing this? No, no they did not but they touched on it in a good way I will say.
I don’t like that the people were downing the man that bought the name, relaunched the event, and made it a festival. That man too an event that ended in chaos and destruction and made it a festival that not only focuses on music and having fun, but healthcare, finance, the environment, etc. He’s elevated this idea of a small picnic amongst the Blacks to be fun AND educational. We know there will never be another Freaknik like there was in the 90’s but this is the new age. We could never do 95% of what we did back then now. Leave that young man alone! In this imaginary part, this is where you bring the founders back and ask them about what this young man is doing for the legacy of the event THEY STARTED. This was not a JD and Luke event. JD didn’t even start going to Freaknik until like ‘94. He has no ownership over the event or Atlanta as a whole. I know that’s how he talks but that’s not the case. I love JD, too, but calm down.
Just a few thoughts I had on a documentary that we were all waitingIfor. I wanted more and for the format that it’s in, I didn’t get all that I was supposed to. BUT if they do the Magic City documentary (*cough cough* Hulu), do it in sections. Take us on a journey. Answer ALL of our questions. Have a bevy of people to talk about their time there. As a side note, I did not care about Jalen Rose coming to Freaknik. I don’t know why he got a spotlight. It baffled me. I would have rather learned Luke’s journey to Freaknik or the founder’s journey through the event as it grew in the 90’s.
Did you watch the doc? Did it live up to your expectations?
