CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — “Stony Island,” the movie that digs deep into the heart of the 1970s music scene on Chicago's South Side, will be celebrating its 45th anniversary this month with a digital release and special showing at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
Chicago, 1978 — the Far South Side, specifically — is where Chicago native Andrew Davis set his first film, “Stony Island.” Davis, who is known for directing box office hits like “The Fugitive,” told WBBM he wanted to make a film about where he grew up after watching Martin Scorcese’s “Mean Streets” and George Lucas’ “American Graffiti.”
“And the story I chose was about my kid brother Richie, who was growing up on the South Side, on the far, far South Side in the South Deering, South Chicago, Jeffery Manor area,” he said. “My parents were old lefties, and when the neighborhood started turning Black they said ‘we're not leaving.’”
Davis described his brother as “the last white kid on the block” and said he decided to start a band with his friend, Stoney Robinson, who lived down the street.
“I thought, ‘This is a great story about music as a common language,’” Davis said. “I had been a musician, myself, and I felt very comfortable trying to tell the story of what it was like to grow up on the South Side of Chicago with all those musical influences.”
In Chicago, where Davis said the ultimate divisions revolve not around race, but around class, he said music can bridge nearly every divide.
“Benny Goodman was one of the first bandleaders to have an integrated band, from Austin High School,” he said. “Steve Allen and Mel Torme went to Hyde Park High School, which is where Herbie Hancock went to high school. Chaka Khan went to Kenwood nearby, so there's this whole history of music being a common, sharing of culture.”
“Stony Island” is now being released digitally for the first time and will return to the big screen at the Gene Siskel Film Center on Nov. 17. Davis will attend the showing.
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