Film Spotlight: Ben Chace and Sam Fleischner's Wah Do Dem

A culturally isolated Brooklynite's fish-out-of-water odyssey draws heavily on its musical inspirations. Here the two filmmakers tell us all about it.

By Amy Strauss
Published: October 26th, 2010 | 12:00am

As a progressive portrait of an impromptu vacation seen as a heightened experience, not an escape, the lo-fi Wah Do Dem follows a lonely tourist through a sea of shysters, local street musicians, and even witch doctors. He eventually realizes that the greatest journey of his twenty-something life was found only when he abandoned all of his known comforts.

Told through a collection of musical actors and audiophiles, with the leading male Max (the first-time actor Sean Bones) sculpting a perfectly portrayed aloof Williamsburg hipster, the life-changing pilgrimage begins with a break-up. The trendy musician Max arranges a waterfront date in his 'hood, focused around a six-pack of Red Stripe. As Max and his girlfriend Willow (Norah Jones) slug petite browned bottles, she abruptly ditches their rendezvous and relationship (just two days before a planned cruise ship escape). There is no way that Max could predict what he would endure on his now solo trip.

Wah Do Dem is an enthusiastic effort by independent writer-directors Ben Chace and Sam Fleischner, who thrive in perfected glances of “less is more” concepts. The film was first dreamed up as a wispy sea voyage when Chace nabbed a pair of cruise tickets in a raffle. Delaying taking the trip for as long as possible, the lifelong filmmaking friends chose to build a fairly honest portrait juxtaposed against three cultures: Brooklyn, the open sea, and Jamaica. Chace and Fleischner, both self-declared fans of reggae, scouted Jamaica for the bulk of the film's setting because of the intensity and passion found within its native music. “We knew our character would be attracted, too, and find a soulful experience within it,” says Fleischner.

Treading the native land for one week before a two-week shoot, they preconceived many of the realistic scenarios. However, the improvisational fish-out-of-water spats allowed for the viewers to embrace sprightly spontaneity at its best. "We reached out to Sean to play Max because he is pretty much the character,” says Chace. “There is a lot less acting—it is really more reality—and he gave us what we needed.” While we all may know a “Max,” one donned in a uniform of brightly colored, skinny-legged jeans and counter-culture T-shirts, his realistic approach to life away from home is what you would expect from the freshly dumped male. Max wallows in his lonely misery by recording ditties on his MacBook, and when forcing himself to embrace social settings (as seen in Carnival-esque, senior citizen cruise crowds), he rubs elbows with all the oddball types like scene-stealer Kevin Bewersdorf, who aggravates Bones by suggesting, “Surprise, surprise, you don’t fit in everywhere in the world.”

It is when the oblivious young American is left shoeless, moneyless, and shirtless while his ship sails to sea, that Wah Do Dem comes alive. Co-star Jamaican actor Carl Bradshaw (as seen in nearly every Jamaican production since 1972), squeals his Rasta prophet life lessons as Max swirls through delinquent youth soccer games, a full moon celebration with a stellar performance from famed reggae group, The Congos, and even, a politically embellished party celebrating their enthused approval of Barack Obama elected as the U.S. President (which occurred in real-time during the film's taping). "It's funny how now, in 2010, this has changed,” says Chace. “The real optimism for Obama hadn't shut down yet.”

Wah Do Dem, which appropriately is Jamaican patois for “what's wrong with them,” puts cultural isolation on the pedestal, allowing one absent-minded fellow to tackle a hellish odyssey that could as well have been a half-baked hallucination—and leaves us all sliding off our contact highs. Stewed in two-year-old pop grooves and soundtrack appearances by MGMT, Yeasayer, Santigold, and Suckers and splashed against majestic mumblecore at a rocksteady pace, you'll come away oddly eager to skip away to your own solo, soul-searching journey. "You hardly ever get to see the country on-screen like this,” says Fleischner. “It really is as close as you are going to get in Jamaica. It's the most recent display and is honest to date.”

Wah Do Dem is available on DVD as of October 26, 2010 from Factory 25.