Fab 5 Freddy (Hold Your Fire)

MovieMaker

Fab 5 Freddy is an icon of art, music and film who has spent much of his life bridging those worlds. We talk with him about the stunning new documentary Hold Your Fire, which he produced.

The film tells the story of a 1973 standoff that began when four young Black men tried to rob a sporting-goods store, and quickly spiraled into a 47-hour hostage situation that has drawn comparisons with the Attica prison takeover and Dog Day Afternoon bank heist. (Freddy, aka Fred Brathwaite, remembers standing outside the bank as police tried to draw out the robbers.)

The 1973 standoff hasn't received as much attention as the others, but Hold Your Fire explains its important place in history — and the world today. Hostage negotiation techniques employed by visionary NYPD psychologist Harvey Schlossberg avoided needless bloodshed, and Freddy points out that they should be more widely used today.

We also talk about the astonishing culture that came out of late 1970s and early '80s New York, from hip-hop to graffiti art to New Wave, and about Freddy's memories of his friend Jean-Michel Basquiat.

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