DIG WE MUST
DIG WE MUST
DIG WE MUST
DIG WE MUST
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a film about people and
the records that collect them
DIG WE MUST is a film about life, death, and record collecting with some of the foremost vinyl record collectors of our time. DWM features a charismatic and colorful cast of characters who are jointly consumed by the same "sweet disease," as one of them calls it. None of these people want to be cured, no matter how addictive, consuming, or out-of-control their passion has become. They have devoted their lives to music, and the never-ending hunt for records which can become a way of imposing meaning and order on the uncertainty of this world.
Meet the Diggers
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Rich Medina
Newark, NJ
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Kristine Barilli
Brooklyn, NY
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Soul Sister
New Orleans, LA
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Kevin Donan
Hollywood, CA
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Diana Ratsamee
Seattle, WA
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Eddie B
Charlestown, MA
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Ian Dapiaoen
Seattle, WA
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Andrew Yeomanson
Miami, FL
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Anthony Warner
Seattle, WA
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Val Shivley
Philadelphia, PA
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Lil Dave
Philadelphia, PA
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Hong Kwon
San Francisco, CA
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Greg Caz
Queens, NY
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Farah Darliette
Boston, MA
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Dr. Ike
New Orleans, LA
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John Tefteller
Grant’s Pass, OR
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Thanh Tan
Seattle, WA
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Ayana Heaven
Brooklyn, NY
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Rene
Boyle Heights, CA
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Booboo
Boyle Heights, CA
Meet the FILMMAKER
Aaron Luis Levinson
Director
Temple University film program graduate Aaron Luis Levinson is a multi-Grammy award-winning music producer and documentarian. He is known for founding the Spanish Harlem Orchestra and producing the pioneering jazz project The Philadelphia Experiment. Levinson has taught at Temple University and the University of the Arts. His documentary work includes sound and production for the legendary Bontoc Eulogy directed by Marlon Fuentes, score for Showtime’s Toe Tag Parole by the Oscar winning directors Alan & Susan Raymond, and appears as himself in the CTV documentary The Musical Brain.
Director’s Statement
At some point I had the dawning realization that this sprawling network of people- my friends, acquaintances, and rivals- shared a unique connection and a specific interest that unified them. As a filmmaker I could not help but experience all of my interactions as conversations with my compatriots. But alas, it’s not that simple.
The component that makes this a bit more complicated is that I elected to explore a subject, record collecting, in which I am deeply embedded. Normally, whether we think about it or not, we expect a filmmaker to be an impartial observer, a person that is there to objectively illuminate the path ahead. But we don’t expect them to operate as a green pill proponent of the actual subject of the film itself.
But in all fairness it is also a tool of filmmakers to sometimes employ an “unreliable narrator” as a clever narrative device. In this case it’s not just the classic fictional narrator that we find unreliable, it’s also who I am as a director. Hopefully the film brings into conversation the presumed objectivity of documentary films and the assumptions we make about them. In the end, “Dig We Must” is a testament to the faint line between obsession and life-long passion.