He Got Game
Tyrel Hunt, basketball player turned filmmaker, talks new flick ‘The Sound of Southside,’ writing books and enjoying life
Life after sports is a difficult transition for some athletes. For countthebasquiat_, venturing into writing and filmmaking was smooth, because he'd been preparing for it all along. I noticed that after he graduated college, Ty was shifting gears towards the arts with a similar dedication to what he put in to hoops. Now that he's working on his second film, with his debut novel on the way, I wanted to check in with Ty about all of that and his work in the community of Jamaica, Queens.
J.E.: You have a background that's heavy in sports, can you speak to that?
T.H.: Yes, basketball will always be life for me, but the people who really know me, know that I've always had equal love for writing and storytelling. Some of my earliest memories consist of me watching early Allen Iverson games and sneaking away during the commercial breaks to write articles about it as if I was a writer for Slam Magazine. As I started to get more known for basketball, I noticed that people would actually be surprised to find out that I had other interests. I guess that was my introduction to the notion of "Shut up and dribble".
T.H.: One moment that stood out to me as a teen was when I wrote my term paper for high school and my teacher told me to redo it without plagiarising. That taught me two things - One, that I'd have to deal with those kind've expectations and two, that my writing must be pretty good.
J.E.: How did you start to transition into filmmaking?
T.H.: By the time I came of age, the print industry was dead, so the whole idea of writing for Slam had kind of dwindled. I knew I wanted an outlet to write and tell stories, so film felt like the best option to have a platform for my work. It was during a time when I was feeling really down because my grandfather had passed away, and I was in college away from my family. I inherited some of his money and bought a camera on a whim and started recording everything.
T.H.: I made tons of documentaries of my teammates, and then I'd go home and follow my brother around and document him dominating on the summer basketball circuit. Looking back, it was really amateurish but I'm proud that I got out of that rut by creating. From that point, I started putting myself through "Film School" which for me meant watching old, sometimes obscure movies that were considered classics. Everything from Citizen Kane, to Scorcese, Fellini, etc, I'd be watching it while I was headed to games or just chilling on my own.
J.E.: Talk about your first film "April Again"
T.H.: I've always been a quiet guy, and at first I couldn't see myself directing a film. I thought I had a pretty good script so in the beginning, I'd send it off to directors and see if they wanted to direct it. Quickly, I found out that no one wants to tell someone else's story. It was my story, my passion project, so I had to go out there and do it.
T.H.: I learned so much working on that film because I had a hand in every single part of the process. Making films on an independent level has a certain lawlessness to it that I love. It feels a lot like graffiti -- you set up quickly, create your art, and get out of there before the cops bother you. You never know what's going to happen on set, when the set is a public street. There were some crazy moments throughout, but it created an authentic rawness that I'm really proud of. We were able to win several awards on the festival scene, but more importantly, it gave me some experience to tell the story that I'm working on now.
J.E.: Which story is that?
T.H.: Right now, I'm working on a film called The Sound of Southside. I'm still using the run and gun techniques that I picked up from April Again, but this one is more polished and a higher budget. I scored a bunch of grants from the city from my script, and I'm pouring it all into this project. The best part about it is, it's coming with a full length novel, too. My plan is for this to end up on both bookshelves and TV screens.
T.H.: The way this came together was hectic. Just before COVID, I started working on my second film but when March 2020 came around, everything shut down and I lost the money that I had already invested into it. I was bummed about it, but during one conversation with my dad, he convinced me that COVID lockdown would be the perfect time to write a book. I took a few months and turned my script into a novel, and I started shopping it around to agents. I ended up getting signed by Howland Literary Agency and they're helping me shop the book around to get a book deal currently.
T.H.: Meanwhile, I kept the original plan of the film in my sights so I kept raising money for it, and we started shooting last week. The process has been exhausting but when it comes out, it'll all be worth it. The story follows this young Jazz musician who is trying to keep his father's legacy alive and reopen his old Jazz club. In an effort to raise money, he gets involved with a shady local philanthropist and everything goes left. It has a little bit of everything -- there's crime, politics, love, etc. And it's all to the backdrop of some great music.
J.E.: What do you do for work and how do you find that balance with your creative pursuits?
T.H.: I'm lucky enough to be doing a job that I really love, working as the Director of Marketing at Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (JCAL). First off, I'm thankful to you for giving me my first opportunity out of college. I was able to leverage the writing that I did for you into a career in marketing that I like a lot. Working at JCAL allows me to collaborate with artists all day, meet new creative people and make a contribution to the community.
T.H.: As a creative person, the place is like a playground for me. It's two buildings and tons of different art studios, theaters and gallery spaces. They've allowed me to shoot pretty much all of my interior scenes in their buildings and I'm thankful for that. Also, in addition to the marketing that I do for them, I founded the 10 Minute Film Festival in collaboration with them, so each April I produce a film festival where I get to meet all sorts of other dope artists and give out cash prizes. All around I feel good about the work that I do there.
J.E.: What's next for you?
T.H.: I just want to keep creating on an independent level and getting better. The feeling of elevating with my wife is especially rewarding. We met as ambitious college kids, and now as I do this interview, she's out in the Dominican Republic filming for a Hulu show. Things like that bring me joy.
T.H.: After The Sound of Southside, I have a crazy script that I want to be my next film. It's called "Brown Leather Poets", and it's a basketball story. It's always been my dream to create a hoop film, but I knew that it had to be the right story. With "Brown Leather Poets", basketball is the vehicle to explore a lot of themes that I dealt with first hand as a young hooper. In a way, this film is for the young me, the kid who wrote about Iverson all day, or wrote term papers that got discredited. It really holds up a mirror to society.
T.H.: A dream for me would be to connect with LeBron's production company for this film, because it's a story that he'd get, and would resonate with a lot of people. But first things first, I need to complete "The Sound of Southside" and make a splash on the film festival circuit. Look out for that joint coming soon.