Post-show conversation with Charles Mudede (screenwriter of Police Beat) and Ahamaefule Oluo

The closing night of the 18th Local Sightings Film Festival features a special edition of Puget Soundtrack, our popular live score series where musicians choose the films they want to score. Ahamefule Oluo presents local film Police Beat on its 10th anniversary (Robinson Devor, 2005), with accompaniment by Jon Hansen (Space Tuba) and Kevin Buster (Saxophones). This show is a Community Partner Concert with KEXP.

After the performance, Ahamefule Oluo and screenwriter Charles Mudede will have an on-stage conversation.

Ahamefule Oluo on his selection of Police Beat: “I had met Charles Mudede briefly on a few previous occasions but I think of my first real encounter with him was many years ago while riding the 7 coming north from Rainier Beach. I was sitting in the rear of the bus when Charles walked on and proceeded to the seat next to mine. ‘There are two today!’ he said, with plenty of enthusiasm but zero context. ‘Two of what?’ I replied. ‘Two white people! and they look like they don’t even care! I always keep track.’  Many people might take offense to that statement but I would wager that they would not be able to articulate why they take offense because the aim of those words is actually one of healing and inclusion. I understood immediately, Charles was truly glad that there were white people ‘courageous’ enough to board that bus in that neighborhood, jump into the belly of the beast, integration instead of gentrification, the pioneers we need for a brighter future. All of this said with ‘There are two today!’, a crucial dissection of modern race relations stripped to its barest, darkest, most absurd and hilarious core.

This is what I love about Police Beat. Charles [Mudede] and director/co-writer Robinson Devor take these real universes built out of a few words and translate them into such beautiful imagery that is lush while never seeming quite healthy, never letting us become unaware of the mortality of all, the ridiculous futility of everything. The film rolls along at its own curiously slow pace, it breaths and has moments of rest. Musically, this gives me a lot of space to interact with the film, it’s really a composer’s dream.”