Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk follows the ebb and flow of the Bay Area punk scene and documents the genesis of some of the most popular punk bands ever.
Musician and first-time director, Corbett Redford, remembered the project spawning from an innocent phone call from longtime high school friend Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day.
“I was sitting in my living room and I got a text from Billie Joe,” Corbett said. “He said, ‘hey i’m looking for this footage of us playing in a backyard.’”
After exchanging the footage Redford was asked.
“We’re looking for someone to make a movie about our early days and the scene we came from out of Gilman do you know anybody who could do it?” To which Corbett replied, “Yea. Me.”
Members of Green Day helped finance the film which allowed Corbett the freedom to tell the story how he felt necessary. When asked about his first experience directing Redford talked the accomplishment down.
“I think that’s what Punk is to me though. It’s not really asking for permission for doing the things that you want to do creatively. You can be afraid of a task but don’t limit yourself and say you can’t do it.”
Bill Joe shared Corbett’s passion for telling the story right and focusing on the whole community.
“They in many ways wanted to shine the light on their creative peers.” Redford recalled. “Billie in the beginning had some friendly rules: diverse voices, don’t focus on the acrimony and the back bitting because you can get lost in that, and don’t mystify the past so much that you make somebody believe, ‘well I missed that boat, those we’re the times and I can’t recreate something just as inspiring now.’”
In the 80’s and 90’s the East Bay saw the revival of the Punk scene in the humble venue known as 924 Gilman. The many types of punk sought refuge in a divided community as violence, drugs, and alcohol ran rampant. But Redford sought to paint a picture of what being a Punk meant to the people inside the community.
“Punk to a lot of people is loud music and fashion. But to a lot of people in the Bay Area, at least our version of punk, it’s a bit intellectual, it’s thoughtful, [and] we try to be better citizens of the world if we can.”
The film’s total run time is two and a half hours but that had been whittled down from a massive collection of 135 interviews, 35,000 photos and flyers, and 500 hours of raw footage. Director Corbett Redford had contemplated making the film into a mini-series but decided he was set on telling the story in movie format. To trim down their five hour cut of the film they needed a narrator to condense themes of the movie.
Queue Iggy Pop
“[Iggy Pop] is awesome he sounds like a tree, ” Corbett said after Billie Joe wrangled him as the movies narrator.
Corbett and his team soon flew to Iggy’s house in Florida to record and were meet with an expectedly eccentric encounter as he sunbathed in his backyard.
“There was like these pumpkins that were painted like skulls that his neighbors would throw to him as gifts and actual iguanas! He’s sitting in the backyard meditating surrounded by pumpkins and lizards.”
Corbett himself still supports the venue and is part of the Gilman fundraising board and asserts the specialness of the venue.
“It’s an anomaly, it’s one of the last things like it, ” Redford digressed.”If you want to see Gilman change come down, volunteer. Pick up a broom and you can get in for free. I Hope it sticks around for my son when he decides he wants to go start rocking out.”
You yourself can support the venue by not only going to shows but also by going to http://www.helpgilman.org/. Make sure to catch a screening of Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk by checking their website for upcoming screenings.