YXNG BANE - HBK: The Prequel

HBK is a short film that gives us a snapshot of the stories behind Yxng Bane's music.  The most momentous day of your life starts out normal.  You meet friends, play football, link girls. Then it flips like a coin.   What starts out as a 'day in the life' with friends, quickly drifts into obstacles that test the friendship and magnifies the cultural biases flowing through our society. The theme that resonates throughout the film is loyalty: How do friends support one another? The narrative plays with our perceptions, constantly baiting between what we expect to see and the  story behind it. They don’t start the day with bad intentions, but as life shifts, things spin out of control.  Even though the primary concern of the film is male friendship, perception of women within urban culture is also addressed, with an onus on men to become responsible for shifting the dynamic of male and female interaction.   Ultimately, we are presented with a world- much talked about, but so rarely allowed to speak- that transcends stereotypes to show young men who make mistakes, and have to deal with the consequences of the actions.  A new image of young black men in London: Happy. Hopeful. Human.