Tucker, The Man and His Dreams, a look at Birmingham Filmmaker David Tucker Jr.

November 5, 4:34 PMBirmingham Movie ExaminerD.M. Sanders

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 Filmmaker David Tucker, Jr.

Pardon the play on the title of the 1988 Oscar nominated Jeff Bridges' film but as I found out after speaking with David Tucker Jr, the visionary behind Peep This Entertainment, the production company that for the past two years has made the movie-making dreams of Birmingham area students come true, the film's title suits his story too. You see this Birmingham native has a wish list of his own. With a couple of films under his belt, 2001's The Job and 2006's Magic City, he'd like to add more to his resume' and is in the process of doing just that with 2 more feature films in the works and plans to turn Magic City into a weekly television series.

This media mogul is quite versatile, with being the first African-American named to the Birmingham-Jefferson Film Commission; writing, directing, producing and starring in his own work in addition to running a full service production house that specializes in documentaries, feature films, music videos and commercials, and to think it all started from a school production of The Wiz in which as a youngster Tucker played the Scarecrow, "After the show, a lot of people starting coming up to my parents saying hey push David in this direction, so I auditioned for The Alabama School of Fine Arts' Theater Department and I got in and that was in the 7th grade." He says he followed his path to Georgia, "I started doing film at Clark-Atlanta University...I went there briefly and I was in the Radio, Television and Film Department and I did a short film there and presented it to my history class and everybody was pretty amazed with how we got it put together. So that's when I got bit and decided this is the direction I want to go in as far as the entertainment business with a focus on film." From there Tucker attended the University of Alabama-Birmingham and got into their Television and Broadcast Department which lead to his first feature film, The Job, "It was a fun process. It was difficult because we did it with no money. That movie is based on a play I wrote called 4 Xample and we did that play probably 6 months before we actually shot the movie. It ran for 3 nights at The Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame." The film was purchased and distributed nationally. As for his second feature, Magic City, Tucker is equally proud. The movie which he said was bought by Carmike Wynnsong Theater on Lakeshore in Birmingham, ran a week there, "That was really exciting to actually walk in a theater and see something that I created," And that creativity, honed at various stops along Tucker's path is what got him to where he is today. He credits the work of iconic filmmaker Spike Lee of having an influence on his career, "Obviously Spike Lee had an impact on me being at Clark-Atlanta University. Actually my history teacher was friends with Lee and she was the one who gave me such high hopes once she saw the short film. Walking around the campuses of Morehouse and Clark and knowing he had been there and being influenced by Do The Right Thing and School Daze all had an impact on me spiritually."

Peep This Entertainment

Despite his successes with his films, Tucker's most prized and dearest production is his annual summer film camp called On The Set. He says the idea was sparked after he was approached by parents who wanted to know if he would teach their kids the process of making movies, "The first year of the camp which was last year was when I realized how much it meant to our kids because it was something we didn't have here in Birmingham....and just recently, I was informed by our 2009 celebrity mentor (actor Darrin Henson) that the camp were doing here (Birmingham, Alabama) to his knowledge doesn't exist anywhere, not even in Los Angeles or New York, he's never heard of it. And that really inspired me to continue and push harder to try to get more and more sponsors to make this camp bigger and better. So it's a two-fold, with the interest of the kids and it being such an innovative type of project for the country, this really gives me a lot of gas to continue with the camp." Tucker says he and the kids are excited about the upcoming premiere of this year's camp movie, 2:59 which is about a young girl foreseeing her school being held hostage, "None of the kids in this film have ever been in a film before...so you can imagine the impact it's having on their whole being right now." The movie deals with a controversial subject of prayer (or lack thereof) in school, something Tucker hopes will spark a dialogue regardless of what position one holds on the issue, " We're wanting everybody to pay close attention to it...maybe to possibly change that...I know it's a small argument coming from a short film produced by kids but you never know what may happen when you make a little noise that could turn out to make a change for a whole lot of people." And speaking of change, it's something he believes can be brought about in terms of the way young people view themselves on the big and small screen, "The kids can turn on BET and MTV and see videos of people who look like them and the message in the videos is not always positive, but very influencing, and they emulate what they see...so to give them something positive like what we're doing, we're hoping that it has an effect on their everyday lives."

Peep This Entertainment

Tucker is busy tackling plans for next year's On The Set summer film camp with the filmmaker polishing up the script and working on finding 2010's celebrity mentor. In the past, students who participated in the program learned from such established stars as veteran character actress Tonea Stewart (A Time To Kill/Matlock) and Henson (Stomp The Yard/The Express). The future continues to look bright as Tucker is also working on two feature films which he hopes to have shot next year in addition to preparing the pilot for Magic City and presenting it to television networks, "My Plate is pretty full right now." And that full plate also involves providing his expertise and selling Birmingham to out of state production companies in his role as a member of the Birmingham-Jefferson Film Commission, a board he has served on the past 5 years. He says Birmingham is a great place to shoot, "The scenery..that's one of our primary advantages." And that the state's history is also a major selling point, "Obviously Birmingham and Alabama have so much civil rights history that if you come here to tell a story...if you want to tell a story from that perspective, then being in the area where it all happened would add to the essence." With plans by other African-American filmmakers to bring their next projects to the state like actress/producer Tangi Miller and actor/director Shane Dean, he sees it as a win-win situation and he would love to see more of his peers come here, "It can only help inspire our young people in the state of Alabama to continue to push for their dreams. Once they see people like a Tangi Miller doing what they aspire to do, it would only inspire them to do more to obtain their objectives." Tucker's long range goal is to keep Peep This Entertainment here in Alabama something he says he catches flack for, "A lot of people criticize me because of that but I'll take the criticism...I'm here for a reason and it's because there's a void and I'm hoping to fill that void of an African-American filmmaker in the state of Alabama, so that's not to say I won't go away and make films in other places but I would like for Birmingham, Alabama to be my hub."