Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
I just wanted to make a movie about black folks, Graham says.
Satan explains the origin of his stripper name.
I just wanted to have a conversation with black folks.
I was just angry.
I think black folks in general were just kind of up in arms.
I got on YouTube, and I stumbled across some [videos] of stripping thatIrecognize.
Its this group called Lazy Eye Productions out in Cleveland.
It was like antiMagic Mike.
None of this was happening in some theater or in a glamorous nightclub.
Sure, people with day jobs.Just was very down-home!
I just couldnt afford it.
Like a reality show?
We can probably do this in a day or so.
He also found Michele, the white lady [inThis Ones for the Ladies].
She came in because she loves Punisher, a big New Yorkbased city stripper.
So, we shot this thing, and it was a lot of fun and came out really well.
There was alotof dick swinging.
Can you make it more porn?
I just didnt want to be that person to make that show.
I didnt want to do that.
So I was just like, Well, lets just follow Michele and lets see how this goes.
Except I could drive out to Jersey and follow people.
That night, actually, was the night that we met C-Pudding and Poundcake.
What you see on-screen when I asked her, So, whos your favorite dancer?
She said, Oh.
Should I tell him?
Should I tell him?
That was the first time that we met these guys.
Your first meeting is basically on-camera?
I think we have a might have a movie here.
Everybody just was really pretty open to us.
They felt like their story was in good hands, that I wasnt going to fuck it up.
I wanted the crazy dancing, I wanted this nightlife world and the women in it.
But I also wanted this other part of life outside of the club.
To me, thats kind of like the most important thing.
I think it speaks to actually presenting people in a 360-degree manner, which I think is really important.
Was it difficult to get people to open up to you?
Not just about their lives but about their desires?It came really naturally.
I dont know if Ill ever get that same level of access again.
Everybody else was pretty much really open.
We went to Poundcakes kitchen shes a cook, shes Mom.
How did you get the men to open up to you?
His costuming was really strong.
Hes a great dancer.
This didnt make it into the movie, but he liked Prince.
Hes short too, so he wore heels.
He was one of the first dancers to do that.
And so its just taking all these things to give his performance something different.
Young Rider perfected the long walkout.
He introduced all this stuff into the business.
Now everybody does that.
Theres a real intimacy to your footage.
Theyre wonderful, and they are really like that.
I asked them one question, maybe two, and that was it.
They just went off and told the whole story on their own, you know?
There was very little direction.
That was one of the hardest sequences in the edit.
They said something towards the end of that sequence that I thought was really, really important.
And at that point in the film, weve met their mom.
Or, at least, weve seen her.
That their family was able to survive that intact.She came through.
Because of their dancing, in a lot of ways.Definitely.
The one surprise was the dom dancing [performed bymasc lesbian strippers] with Blaze.
She has the line where Poundcake says, Im gay in New York.
If Im going to Philadelphia, Im gay.
The next time we shot with them, though, we saw Blaze dance.
She burned the house down!
There are other dom performers on the circuit that are better than the male dancers.
I loved that because I feel like black communities are painted as universally homophobic, and thats not true.
you might enjoy a female dancer without necessarily being gay.
What was great about Blazes reception is how the emcee that night says something like, Support women!
This is one of our own performing this well!
It was just like that: Go up there and throw a dollar on that girl!
While we were shooting, I was like, Yes.
Dont pause, lets keep recording on that.
Shes saying something thats so powerful.
Support her, support us.
He says, When Im dancing, I feel in control.
What I say goes.
Its like a stripper analogy to talk about all the shit that black people have to go through.
But in our community, in the places that we create, we are in control.
There shouldnt be any shame associated with any of this stuff.
One last question: What would your stripper name be?Oh my God.
Raw Dawg is the one who names people.
Hed probably call me Big Gene.
