The first of two reviews of films from the critically acclaimed director Charlie Ahearn.

1. The Deadly Art Of Survival

“Nathan who is unaware of a contract out on his head is jumped and beaten bloody by a local street gang.Using his martial arts skills he set out to get revenge and is pitted against a group of drug dealers from a rival karate school called the Disco Dojo “ 

Charlie Ahearn has been a man in the right place at the right time and has recieved numerous accolades for just that. As if you didn’t know already, Ahearn is the celebrated director of the seminal hiphop masterpiece, Wildstyle.

Wildstyle with its semi dramatised/documentary approach perfectly captured the ghetto hiphopera unfolding in front of America’s eyes. Ahearn was smart enough to let the story unfold without a thought of dilution nor any other less than divine intervention, which as we all now know was the inevitable. Of course, Wildstyle went on to be a ground breaking worldwide success. But Wildstyle may never have been made if it wasn’t for one of Ahearn’s earlier films… The Deadly Art of Survival. 

It was the making and showing of this low budget doc/fiction No Wave classic which thrust Charlie Ahearn into the world of hiphop. On seeing The Deadly Art Of Survival Fab Five Freddy approached Ahearn… And the rest, as they say, is history. 

The Deadly Art of Survival  was originally the idea of one Nathan Ingram, ghetto soulbrother martial artist. After seeing one of the short films that Ahearn showed in Ingram’s neigbourhood, he approached Ahearn with an idea for a ghetto martial arts film starring himself and his young students. Ingram was inspired by the idea of a martial arts ghetto epic to capture young blacks imaginations (they were already hooked on martial arts movies), in order to eventually steer them clear of the drug and crime wave rife in New York city throughout the 70′s.

On a side note: 21st century Nathan Ingram still works in the community in a similar way to how he did in the 70′s, but now running a prestigous martial arts school in China town, teaching martial arts to kids of all cultures.

As with many films of this genre, The Deadly Art of Survival contained all the typical traits of low budget film making… sketchy acting, adlibbed dialog, shooting in front of a street audience, boom microphone hanging too low. Super 8 film limitations meant that a whole scene was planned out and shot in a single take. But all those quirks make films of this nature so unique… they literally cannot be reproduced or re-enacted ! 

The Deadly Art Of Survival was shot between ’77 and ’78, and was filmed mainly on weekends because some of the actors were school kids from Ingram’s neigbourhood. Other cast members included  Charlie Ahearn’s artist friends such as downtown ‘No Wave’ 8 mm film producer Beth B, the choreographer and dancer Yashiko Chuma, and the artist Kiki Smith. Nathan Ingram’ s family and their real life church scenes also featured in the film. The church in question, situated on 14th St, was run byIngram’s father and mother, scenes feature Ingram’s father playing the church organ, and his mother praying in an intense fashion, while cousins and other family members appear in the congregation.

A prehiphop NYC street scenery can be seen through the lens of Ahearn’s Super 8 camera, at this point in time Bruce Lee and Martial arts were the attraction for young black men in the projects. Martial arts was practiced by many who were inspired by kung fu films. Early breakdance movements of the 70′s were also inspired by martial arts movies, it was literally a no brainer to make a martial arts inspired movie.

Ahearn estimated that the film, shot entirely on super 8 film, cost $2000, which covered the cost of buying pizzas over the two year period to feed the kids involved and give them incentive to take part.

Lee Quinones' freshly painted Howard the Duck mural 1977

 Graffitti artist Lee Quinones’ artwork was featured in film, and a few years later Quinones’ became Ahearn’s star in Wildstyle. His freshly painted Howard the Duck mural was featured in the  The Deadly Art Of Survival’s opening scene. He also painted a graffiti mural of a train on the wall of Handsome Harrys Disco Dojo. The Disco Dojo was a fictitious karate school run by the ruthless Handsome Harry, played by George Gonzalez, a fellow martial artist friend of Ingram. But the dojo was just a cover for Harry’s drug dealing operation. In one ridiculous scene, the unscrupulous Handsome Harry is seen blowing weed smoke in his young karate students faces in an attempt to hook them on Marijiuana and rob them of their pocket change. The character of Handsome Harry is a spoof comic view of ghetto karate dojo’s of the time, conning young kids into paying for a service they were meant to get for free. Nathan Ingram’s whole philosohy was to present these kind of services for no charge.

The Deadly Art Of Survival is named after the school that Ingram established in 74′, he never charged his students a fee because he saw martial arts as a way to build his ghetto students sense of self and promote a better way of life other than drugs and crime. All the martial artists in the film were students of Ingram, including the ‘ninja’ who were an integral part on the plot. The fight scenes were also choreographed by Ingram.

With hindsight, Ahearn feels he would have thought twice about some of the dangerous stunts he allowed to happen during the making of The Deadly Art Of Survival. During the last fight scene, when Handsome Harry meets his end at the hands of Ingram, George Gonzales fell backward into the river, nowadays this could never be done today without a stunt double. Charlie also talked his twin brother, John Ahearn, into a dangerous climb up to the top of a bridge to get an aerial shot “thats how things were done in those days” he explained. 

The following dialog is from a scene in The Deadly Art Of Survival. It is a conversation between Sly Abrahams and Steve Rikenbaker (some friends that Ingram had drafted into the movie). One of them had recently been to a  Parliament Funkadelic show, so they adlibbed a conversation about the show. They discuss their preference to Bootsy Collins performance over Funkadelic, they also spoke about the girls who were at the show…This piece of dialog is an insight into the current music trends of circa 77′, 78′  that young blacks were getting into. It also shows that hiphop attitude was a natural instinct of ghetto kids of  NYC.

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This next piece of audio is from a scene where the ninja’s were playing with Nathan’s mind, it is an early example of hiphop NYC.

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Howard Ingram in the opening scene

The Disco Dojo sign