CNN - Freaknik Doc

‘Freaknik’ documentary producers and director didn’t shy away from telling the full story

CNN — When the documentary “Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told” was first announced, there were some concerns.

What began as a picnic for Atlanta HBCU students in 1983, later grew into an annual spring break destination that attracted thousands from across the country. The thought of resurfaced footage from wilder days and a time before cell phones and social media didn’t go over well with some attendees, now well into – or – past middle age.

“If you gonna tell the story, you have to tell the whole story,” Nikki Byles, one of the producers of the documentary told CNN.

Excerpt

The new documentary boasts among its executive producers hip-hop elders Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell and Jermaine Dupri, along with rapper 21 Savage, who at 31 is too young to have attended Freaknik, but still celebrated his 30th birthday with a Freaknik-themed party.

“I think it speaks to this whole fact that there’s a nostalgia about the nineties and wanting to go back to that time and that fun that we had,” P. Frank Williams, who directed and executive produced the documentary, said of the fascination younger people have with the event that ended in 1999. “Freaknik has this sort of magical lore.”

Williams compared it to a “Black Woodstock” with nostalgia, freedom, and, of course, music.

“Ironically, that’s how we came up with the story because we were sitting in the office laughing and talking about how we would’ve acted with Freaknik,” Byles recalled. “We were mad ‘cause we (were too young at the time and) couldn’t go.”

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