Like every other venue hosting live events, Los Angeles’ Zebulon Café has had a rough 2020. Still, it’s doing what it can to support the arts, artists, and human rights. That’s why today, July 10, 2020, the café is screening the hard-to-find documentary film Take None Give None, and all it’ll cost you is a donation to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
The screening is virtual, as most such events must be in the time of coronavirus. For those unfamiliar, it’s a documentary by photographer (and occasional second-unit director for filmmaker Michael Mann) Gusmano Cesaretti and photographer Kurt Mangum about the Chosen Few MC. Founded in 1959 by Lionel Ricks, the Chosen Few is the oldest multi-racial 1% MC in existence. To give you an idea of the Few’s bona fides, filmmaker, activist, and noted badass Cliff Vaughs was the Hollywood chapter’s VP.
Helping Out:
Having a film crew follow you around, documenting your daily grind doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you’d expect a group of outlaw bikers to welcome. Common Tread’s Mark Gardiner sat down with Cesaretti and Mangum at a screening of the film, and learned that the whole thing evolved out of the personal relationships that Cesaretti built with Chosen Few members since the 1990s. The man was, and still considers himself, a street photographer, and with individual members’ permission, took some shots of those members out and about.
After a 2011 exhibition of some of Cesaretti’s photos of the Chosen Few at the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA was positively received by LA’s cognoscenti, the artist approached the MC about doing a documentary. From 2011 to 2014, Cesaretti and Mangum shot the film, and have subsequently only screened it at a few select film festivals here and there. By all accounts, it’s an intimate, fascinating look at the world’s oldest racially-integrated biker gang.
The virtual screening will be live for 24 hours only, starting at 7pm PST on July 10, 2020. The event is free, but a donation to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is strongly recommended. The film will also be available for streaming on-demand at the end of July, although it’s unclear what platform(s) it will be available on. For the most up-to-date information about the film, including upcoming screenings and streaming, you can follow its official Facebook page.
Sources: Zebulon Café LA, Facebook, Common Tread