It was a moment that made the neck hairs of Gen X Black America stand on end.
Last spring, Hulu announced it was releasing “Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told,” a documentary on the HBCU-focused annual Atlanta spring break event from the 1980s and 1990s. The announcement went viral as folks with their own college-aged children worried about archival footage of them in compromised positions coming to lightweight.
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But the documentary didn’t have a release date…until now.
“The Wildest Party Never Told” will hit the streamer March 21. Shortly before his interestingly dressed appearance at the Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show, the documentary’s c0-executive producer Jermaine Dupri shared the news on X that it will have its world premiere at this year’s SXSW festival.
Freaknik, which started as a modest HBCU picnic in 1983 and spent 15 years morphing into the quintessential Black Spring Break, was a cultural touchstone that many participants would rather leave in the time capsule: the documentary invited a lawsuit from women worried that their shenanigans would be presented to the world in 4K (or maybe 480p since we’re talking about antique camcorder footage with those VHS lines running through them).
Dupri attempted to allay everyone’s concerns about the documentary on the “Tamron Hall Show” last year: “My vision of Freaknik is really a story about the South and Atlanta,” Dupri said. “It’s not really a story about what everybody keeps talking about. I don’t like that part because I feel it’s a little disrespectful.”
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In contrast, co-producer Uncle Luke Campbell appears to be sticking to his 2 Live Crew-sharpened brand by fanning the flame of controversy.
If you were hanging out of a car on Peachtree Street during Freaknik, expect that you could have wound up in someone’s video footage. If you’re worried about that possibility, here are a few steps you can take ahead of the documentary release:
Have conversations with your loved ones
College is known as a period in which folks are generally disabused of their inhibitions and good sense, so the people who love you most should be sympathetic if they see you on the documentary with your massive triangle gold earrings doing whatever the 90’s version of “twerking” was.
Your parents might be appalled to learn what you were doing when they thought you were on that “church retreat,” but you’re grown and don’t have to answer to them. It might be touchier to have to explain things to your children but have that discussion before the documentary drops. Hell, you might earn some cred with them if they learn that mommy operate to put it down.
Don’t let your employer screw you over
The five women who unsuccessfully sued to block the documentary are allegedly judges, politicians and business professionals. Unfortunately, Black women need to work harder to build and maintain their professional reputations than their white or male counterparts, so documentaries like “The Wildest Party Never Told” can’t lend a hand.
If ever an employer threatens action over 30-year-old footage, do what the women did and lawyer up – your career should not be in danger for having innocuous fun as a college student. Even if, say, you’re a small-town kindergarten teacher and your students and colleagues see grainy antique video of Ms. Thompson with her booty in the air, don’t take any “disciplinary action” sitting down. This is why unions exist.
If your employer is giving you problems and customary means aren’t working, consider airing your grievances out on social media. Black Twitter might just shame your employer into taking a different route.
If you did some illegal mess, get your affairs in order
We’re not sure exactly how far the documentary plans to go, but there’s certainly footage depicting the obscure side of Freaknik: women being mistreated at best and sexually assaulted at worst.
Humans have demonstrated time and again that they’re unwilling to get ahead of something that hasn’t yet been proven. But if you know you did something terrible to a woman during Freaknik and that there might be unblurred footage of you in the world, be prepared to make a statement, issue mea culpas or simply have your current reputation ruined.
You knew that behavior was no good in your 20s…it might be time to face a long-delayed reckoning.
