For the Love of Brad in two parts.
Part 1 (You are my sunshine)
For the Love of Brad in two parts. The first part is a music video (6 min) Select Quicktime format. ALLOW VIDEOS 5min+ to load before viewing. I made this film with J’s footage, after Brad was killed on October 27, 2006 in Oaxaca Mexico, while filming. Brad was shot by a government sniper. He was there to document a popular uprising of the poor and dispossessed in Oaxaca, Mexico. “For the Love of Brad” is not so much about how he died but a glimpse of how Brad lived and who he was. Part Two (24 …More
For the Love of Brad in two parts. The first part is a music video (6 min) Select Quicktime format. ALLOW VIDEOS 5min+ to load before viewing. I made this film with J’s footage, after Brad was killed on October 27, 2006 in Oaxaca Mexico, while filming. Brad was shot by a government sniper. He was there to document a popular uprising of the poor and dispossessed in Oaxaca, Mexico. “For the Love of Brad” is not so much about how he died but a glimpse of how Brad lived and who he was. Part Two (24 min) consists of Brad speaking, and joking around and songs he plays and sings, including “Angel From Montgomery,” “Drop of Water,” “If I Had a Dollar..,” and just a little bit of “Green & Black,” the famous anarchist love song. But he didn’t really know that one too well back in 2000, when J shot this footage when we were hanging out in Amsterdam after we’d been to the World Bank riots in Prague. In Part Two, Brad is informally conversing with J about issues he cares deeply about, like climate change. (We were in the Nederlands partly to protest at the U.N climate change conference that year in Den Haag.) Brad is also pondering recent events like the uprising in Seattle, the future of dissent, the state of the world. There are some stunning, prophetic and haunting moments as he reveals the musings of his heart and feelings on life and death. When Brad is joking around or singing, its almost like having him in the room. Almost…. The loss of Brad is immeasurable. He was one of those people that was sensetive to the suffering of others and really good at cheering one up with his own joy and songs. He was one of the few who could really lift my heart which is now heavy with sorrow. Even so, watching him sing and laugh makes me feel better. I made this video so his friends and family would feel better, and so that those who didn’t know him so well could see why we loved him so goddamned much and why we will miss him forever. Brad’s death is still completely unreal, insane to me… but it is real all the same. He signed his emails “B Rad” and so we shall be… - Priya
Part 2
Part Two is 24 min. This is our lovely Brad. When the sadness consumes so utterly that there is no space for anything else, and you can barely breathe… remember what is was that infused us with so much joy, the love that radiated… Brad was dazzling in the way he lit this world with his brightness. I will never get used to the idea of not seeing him again. We used to live together, squat together, and I went where he went or he came where I was, when we needed a roof over our heads. We even squatted the NYC Indymedia before the authoritarians took it over, or as Brad called it, “the liberal sectarian coup,” after which, we left because they were hostile to anarchists. This time, I cannot go where he has gone, and it feels really weird. I feel lost, as if I don’t really belong here either. A Greek friend told me that when they lose someone they love, at the funeral, they will chant “Z! Z!” (or some word pronounced like that) which means, “Live! Live!” as in, “we must live!” We must live as Brad did, in defiance of fascism, grief and all that tears apart the fabric of human dignity. “Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.” - Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC) Brad’s work is undone. Seems only the good die young, before their song is sung, before the day is done, before the war is won, before the bell is rung. Though sometimes grief consumes like a dark night with no stars, we must not give in to despair. We must carry on, for Brad, and for the revolution for which he gave his life. Brad, where ever you are, I hope you are warm, that your soul is free and surrounded by love. I hope the dumpsters are overflowing with unsullied organic produce in your heaven. At least you don’t have to worry about Capitalism anymore. It is the living who suffer now. The people of Oaxaca are a great example of courage and strength, for they have not given into terror, intimidation, sorrow or the weight of poverty. They hold something more important than fear in their hearts, something more important than despair. They have not given and neither must we. Our hearts are broken, but our guns are smokin… We will unleash hell on those who took our sunshine away.- Priya ..
