HOT SPRINGS DOCUMENTARY FF INTERVIEWS: Producer Nolan Dean talks about Nathan Willis’ RAP SQUAD

Nathan Willis’ RAP SQUAD (Nolan Dean was the producer for the film) follows Arkansas students at Helena West-Helena’s Central High School who participate in a special class that has given them a creative space and encouraged them to utilize hip-hop and spoken word as an outlet for their civic frustration and a means to heal their community. That’s a feel-good logline, right? Kids are given an avenue to “get it out there” by an educational institution, as opposed to being thwarted and dealt with as the worst schools often do when they aren’t ignoring them due to increased numbers of kids per student in each classroom by just teaching to test and processing them like people product.

Yet, there is more to the film, because we are also given insight into how a community views its responsibility toward the education of the kids via a ballot proposal up for consideration to build a brand new school to offer a badly needed upgrading of their facilities. The reactions are pretty typical and unsurprising, but the instinct of the children, emboldened by the encouragement to have a voice, is not.

That crystallizes the thing that takes RAP SQUAD to a different level. Especially, in the midst of a bitterly fought election and a polarized country, the display of how grass-roots, local politics is fought and measured AND the impact that a group (in this case, these children) can have when they DO mobilize, when they DO act as a greater unit comprised of many individuals – it gives one hope.

In the interview, I talk to Dean about his relationship with director Nathan Willis and what his role as producer entailed on RAP SQUAD. We also discuss the insecurity regarding their own insight and perspective that led to a desire by Dean and Willis, who are white, to find a black editor to work on the film. We also talk about ensuring that you don’t manufacture good guys versus bad guys who aren’t really there.