On The Record

Congratulations on Hunter: For the Record, what are you looking forward to most about the film's release? Alice: Thank you! Seeing a three-year project come to an end is pretty epic. There are some powerful moments, some hilarious scenes and an awesome sound track the whole way and all of that will be amplified in that cinema. I can't wait to hear the audience's response – so many people have supported the project and been there for the whole journey and are really hanging out to see it.

The community support for the film was overwhelming… What does it mean to the team to have the support of the community behind this movie? A: To have people believing in the project enough to give up their hard earned cash has been unbelievable. I really was amazed at everyone's generosity and readiness to pledge money to the cause. Obviously, the money allowed us to continue working on the film but what I didn't expect was all the love we got from the community. Having the support of the community means a lot and in turn we worked our butts off to make something that was worthy of all their kindness. The crowd funding successes also lead to a financial contribution from ScreenWest.

How was the process of making the documenty for you, particularly beginning the documentary as Hunter was diagnosed with terminal cancer? Sam: we spent the last two years of his life filming regularly, so in a way I feel I became one of the people who knew the 'new Hunter' best. Often I felt he used the camera as an emotional outlet. He would save up things to talk about, and when I would arrive and start to chat, he would say 'Wait until the camera is on and then I'll answer that'. Which is great as a filmmaker to make sure everything is expressed on tape, but sometimes, I think because he was holding everything in until the camera was on, he would break down as soon as we started rolling and we had some very intense, emotional moments together. It was very difficult to see him getting sicker, and to listen to him talk about wanting to beat cancer when it did seem like that was very unlikely. He was not one to give up! I feel like he trusted me to tell his story honestly, and I'll do my best to live up to that.

Hunter experienced a fraught battle with drugs and alcohol, is this aspect of his life exposed at all in the documentary? A: Yes we managed to get quite a bit of archival footage of Hunter from his earlier days and partying was a big part of his life for a long time. Hunter has always been very open about his drug use and fondness for alcohol so it would have been unrealistic to omit this from the film. Hunter actually found a lot of clarity and peace when he stopped drinking after his diagnosis and wished that he had sobered up sooner.

Can you tell us a little bit about the film's soundtrack? A: The soundtrack was obviously a very important part of this film as Hunter lived and breathed hip hop. We had such an abundance to choose from with tracks being donated by Drapht, Optamus, Dazastah, Mortar, DJ Vame and more. There will definitely be some Hunter classics in there as well as some of his later stuff.

Why do you think he chose to make the very painful, last few years of his life public? A: I don't know if he thought about it too much – sharing his journey just seemed to be the natural thing to do for him. He was also doing video diaries the whole time that we were shooting the documentary and he tweeted regularly about his physical and emotional state. Hunter didn't seem to hold back either; he wasn't embarrassed about expressing his feelings. Hopefully his willingness to share will pave the way for others to do the same rather than bottling their feelings up. Similarly, people dealing with terminal illness may find consolidation in what they are going through. Part of his motivation was probably also to leave something behind for his son Marley to remember him by.

What are you going to do now that it's finally out there? A: Celebrate! We'll be submitting it to film festivals straight away and hoping to get into some of the bigger ones like SXSW in 2013.