GhettoPhysics comes to Philly October 8th

GhettoPhysics” is a new socio-political documentary film, opening in major U.S. markets starting in October, about the nature and structure of power, and the dynamics of power, as they’re played out in every corner of our society, and in every society around the world. 


In “GhettoPhysics: Will the Real Pimps and Ho’s Please Stand Up!” (www.ghettophysics.com), filmmakers William H. Arntz ("What the BLEEP Do We Know!?") and E. Raymond Brown (www.eraymondbrown.com) initially take us to the streets, where the literal pimps and ho’s play out their game. But they also take us to the classroom and the corporate boardroom, where the same game is being played, only at a much more subtle and globally consequential level.

“I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

Nearly everyone has heard the phrase, and it’s quoted in the media now all the time.

In 1976, in the motion picture, Network, that was newscaster Howard Beale’s angry, frustrated cry. In the film, which won four Academy Awards, Beale’s rant galvanized millions of Americans to open their windows and join him, shouting to the world, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

Now, in 2010, millions of Americans are feeling the same way: angry, frustrated, fearful and impotent. Only it’s not a movie; it’s real life as we know it: struggling economy, Gulf oil spill, porous borders, foreclosures, global ecological threats, healthcare, wars and more.

Can any institution be trusted? Government? Corporations? The military? Organized religion? … Doesn’t look like it.

So what is going on here? 

Pimps and ho’s. Dominators and the dominated. The same old game; only it seems to have reached its limit. Everyone is feeling the long-term effects of this worldwide game of power … and it’s not very pleasant.

Not just a film, GhettoPhysics is an experience that entertains, enlightens and empowers. As they say, “The truth will set you free, but first it may piss you off!”

Filmmaker Arntz, creator of the hit cult film, What the BLEEP Do We Know!?, asks, “When have the African-American and Body/Mind/Spirit communities ever collided? I’m hoping this film will speak to the huge part of the population that doesn’t get exposed to transformation, meditation, Landmark Forum…. From a whole new perspective, it’s a presentation of awareness, choosing your own destiny, creating reality. And it’s right straight out there; it doesn’t talk down to the audience one bit.”

The basic tenet of GhettoPhysics is that the interplay between the Pimp and the Ho is the simplest expression of the fundamental way that people interact in the world. But this interaction is so multilayered that it’s hard to see “the game.” However, by looking at the world through the Pimp/Ho dynamic, it becomes easy to see the manipulations that keep society’s Ho’s forever in debt, disempowered and marching off to war.

Arntz explains, “We don’t usually refer to power interactions in politics or economics as a game. But this is exactly what is taking place — strategizing, leveraging, maneuvering, countering, positioning…. using Pimp and Ho terms is a very simplified, yet universally understandable way of describing such power dynamics. These dynamics can be described in many other ways, but they all refer to the same thing — someone has command, power or advantage over someone else in the power game.”

E. Raymond Brown, whose self-published book “Will the Real Pimps and Ho’s Please Stand Up” (2002), served as the basis for the film, notes, “The people running the show (a.k.a. the Pimps) and the people putting up with it (a.k.a. the Ho’s) have been doing a lousy job taking care of the planet, the environment, and each other. It’s time to say ‘Game over’ and time to start a new one.”

Part documentary, part “Saturday Night Live” satire, and part narrative story, GhettoPhysics begins by looking at the evocative world of the Pimp and Ho. It then moves out to encompass the entire social power game that is going down all around us, and finally brings it home in the way this awareness impacts one student’s life.

But between interviews, dramatic scenes and scathing satire, an interesting thread emerges - empowerment and hope. “Pimps and Ho’s is not about right and wrong, good guys vs. bad guys,” says Brown. “It’s about awareness of ‘the game’ and letting people know it’s up to them to choose the role they play in every situation. Like the film Network, GhettoPhysics refuses to let those in control rule our lives anymore. Network said: ‘We’re mad as hell and not going to take it anymore’. Our motto is simple and blunt: ‘Speak Truth to Power’. Please Stand Up!”

Arntz adds, “It’s our hope and passion that we can nudge the process in a better direction for all, and do it with a twinkle in our eye, some laughs on the way, and ‘speaking truth to power.’ ”

Interviewees include author, social activist and Princeton professor Dr. Cornel West; MC and producer KRS-One; rapper/actor Ice T; author and spiritual teacher, Byron Katie; economist, author and social activist John Perkins; Emmy Award-winning television producer and social activist Norman Lear; former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney; Brother Ishmael Tetteh, Founder and Spiritual Director of the Etherean Mission in Ghana, West Africa, a trans-denominational metaphysical organization; and a colorful contingent of street characters, including Filmore Slim, Hook da Crook, Mac Breed and Lo Da Show.

Arntz recalls, “Following the success of What the BLEEP, I thought I was done with films. But after a bit, the thought occurred that if I could make something that would help people, I'm willing to do it. But the Universe had better send it my way. It wasn't coming from me. I told the Universe to ‘make me an offer I can't refuse.’ Then E Ray showed up with his pilot and I couldn’t refuse. The ideas, the humor, the troublemaker aspects were just too good to pass up. I saw ways that my filmmaking experience, my sojourn through the worlds of money and power (having started and sold two software companies), and my years of spiritual inquiry could augment the stroke of superb creation that E Ray had started.”

For his part, E Ray reflects, “I was a big fan of What the BLEEP, and was looking around for help developing my film. So, I approached John Raatz, of The Visioneering Group, who had done much of the marketing for What the BLEEP. John was always getting asked to pass things along to Will, but he knew Will wouldn’t like most of these ideas … except for GGhettoPhysics. Will watched GhettoPhysics (Version 1), and I had lunch with him the next day. He gave me 30 pages of notes he’d written on the film, and the rest is history.”

Asked, what message do you want the viewers to gain, the filmmakers respond, “It’s more like what awarenesses do we want to awaken in the viewers. For example: In the end, they are in control of their life and their reality; that there are forces, people always trying to get you to do what they want, not what you want; that playing a victim role is a dead end; that it is up to them to choose — consciously choose — their role in every situation.

E. Raymond Brown is a visionary African-American author, director, actor, producer, musician, lecturer, and workshop facilitator. He was raised in Los Angeles, part of the time in South Central and the rest of the time in relatively affluent North Hollywood and West Los Angeles. His father was a successful jazz musician – his parents named him Eric after jazz legend Eric Dolphy – and his mother was the first African-American to graduate from UCLA Law School. So he grew up with a foot in both worlds.

E Ray attended California State University – Long Beach, majoring in Pan-African Studies. During that period he was also immersed writing and producing music. He has studied somatic, archetypal, and aboriginal psychology Taoism, shamanism, metaphysics, quantum theory, transformation facilitation, geo-politics and Pan-Africanism. Much of this background is evident and can be seen in GhettoPhysics . Now his focus is on “impacting and expanding the human thought spectrum with empowering, educational, and entertaining film, music, literature and workshop content.”

William Arntz began his professional career as a research laser physicist, developing wave optics simulators for high-energy lasing systems. After a few years of traveling, he landed in San Francisco and began studying with a spiritual teacher. Eventually, the students were given the task of writing a software product/company, whereupon William wrote “AutoSys” – a distributed event processor. He sold the company two years later and retired.

After more years of spiritual practice, he became interested in getting some of the principles out to the general public. He realized he could satisfy a lifelong dream and use the software proceeds to make a movie. That movie started life as a small documentary about Spirit and Science, but grew in scope (and budget) and became What the BLEEP Do We Know!? Producing, scripting, and directing the film, What the BLEEP was completed in 2004 and went on to become a global phenomenon, with well over 100 million viewers experiencing the BLEEP.