One Mile Away

…so if you're watching this documentary right now

the truth of the situation is it's been pirated

you're not meant to be watching, but it's so important that everybody

gets to watch this thing we're giving it out

Ssh! Don't tell anybody.

One!

To everybody that's about to watch, make sure you pass it on

make sure the man next to you watches, make sure he watches

make sure everybody watches make sure the message gets out

-Free the knowledge -you understand: the message

-Free the knowledge -it's like my brother says,

be free-minded, think for yourself, don't get caught up in rubbish

Peace

When I first started this movement, I told Adie about it

he was skeptical but he says to me "if you can set the one order, set it"

so I'm still pushin', and, like, now you ain't here bruv,

it makes it even more real. We ain't promised tomorrow...

so, let's make the most of today. Rest in peace Adie Williams

-Rest in peace - Adam Williams -Rest in peace - Adam Williams

-brother from another mother, it's my family, that is -One.

Everyone's walking around casual, like, like zombies, but...

There's some fucked-up shit going on, man.

You look around at everyone and everyone's just normal, like.

Go home, read the papers, watch the news,

kick back, have a cup of tea

and get back up to do the same shit again.

No one ain't got a passion for this thing, like me.

On the streets of Birmingham...

Tonight, another shooting, another victim.

Probably going on about 15 years now,

this beef in Birmingham's been going on,

between Burgers and Johnsons.

Three fatal shootings in as many weeks.

Birmingham now has the highest concentration of gun crime

in the country,

with three serious gun crime incidents here every single day.

The Burgers, they're the Handsworth guys, innit?

And Johnnies are Aston.

These are the two notorious gangs in Birmingham.

This man had an argument with that man.

Next thing, a punch turns to a stab, a stab turns to a gun

and somebody's shot.

If I see you, I think, "Ain't that my man from that area?"

It's on sight?

What do you mean "on sight"?

- You see anyone, just fuck 'em up. - In what way?

Fuck 'em up, man. Kill 'em. Beat 'em up. Stab 'em up. Shoot 'em.

That's what it's come to, a postcode thing.

You're from this area, you're involved. It's simple.

What's the war about?

I don't even know, you know.

Hear them guns blow in the ghetto

For that big or that small dough

Beef burns slow like the bloods at the hydro for my dough...

Show us. What happened?

Yeah, I got stabbed there.

Once there on my arm.

It's gang stuff, really.

How many of your friends have been stabbed or shot?

Loads of my friends have been stabbed.

Loads of my friends have been shot, like.

Gotta be very aware of your surroundings.

What do you mean?

Just, like, a lot of people...

This is like a kind of main road in Handsworth, as well.

A lot of people sometimes drive past here

and see if they can see someone from this area

to try and pick them off.

And it's always constantly just looking over your back.

I watch every car that goes past, so I know who's in there.

A man no take backchat

Man will back a weapon

Probably a 4/5 or a MAC-11

And there ain't nothin' you can tell 'em

Man, I pop your melon and a shot straight to your cerebellum

And it's real struggle that I'm reppin'

And I can't see the rats around me but I can smell 'em...

It's a shame that...

..I'm so used to people getting stabbed and getting shot.

It's a shame.

Every day I wake up, "Such and such got shot. Swear down."

Cos are we really winnin'? Are the kids grinnin'?

When shots go off in a man's christening

They say niggers don't listen All this black on black

Will there be peace now that Silk's missing?

13's missing?

- Look. See that there? - A wall.

- And that there? - Yeah.

Slugs. Right there and right there.

- Unfortunately, I was the target. - You were the target?

- Yeah, right here. - Bloody hell.

How fast you can get into the alley there.

Look at the gate. It's got a padlock on there now.

I would have been dead.

Aston, home of gun crime, G.

Pop, pop, pop, pop.

Zoom on a motorbike. Jump off. That's some next shit, blood.

I'll be duckin' and divin' Bustin' at hood niggers mainly

I got shot once That's enough shit for me, baby

Shine a gun, rude boy I'm staying daily...

You see a man walking, catching, you run upon him, so he don't see.

Now, if you're doing that, you're living like that,

then you're gonna wanna be aware of some people doing that to you.

You have to be on point.

Especially, if you're at the height of shit that's going down,

you have to be very on point.

You moan about the people that are gone and you just think,

"How many more people have to go because these people have gone?"

And, like, ain't there no way, like, you know..?

If we could ask these people what they really want, like,

you're never gonna come back and live,

but what would you want?

I guarantee you, half of them will say,

"To stop killing each other. You don't wanna be here like this."

This cannot be living.

I don't believe this is what we were put here to do,

just do what we're doing.

I think there's more to it than this.

So what did you do?

Phoned Penny up, yourself, cos you'd finished doing the film,

so I know you had connections with some of them Burgers and that.

So I contacted you to contact Dylan,

who's affiliated with Burgers.

Yeah, it's Flash. Waagwaan?

What you sayin', G? What's happenin'?

So Shabba called me,

because I got to know young men on both sides of the conflict,

while researching my film One Day, in 2007.

I stayed good friends with Dylan who played Flash in the film.

I got a phone call from Penny

saying that a guy named Shabba from the B6 side of town

was thinking about any way where there could be a truce.

My first initial thought was, "OK, this is against the grain."

If my friends hear I'm talking to somebody from the other side of town,

or people I wanna associate with, they're thinking, "Yo, I'm dodgy."

So my first thought was "Do I really wanna do it?"

Then I thought to myself I've got kids coming up,

I've heard 'em talk about this gang stuff, so I'm obliged to.

Wanna be a gunman, do ya?

Just making the film One Day,

I've got these kids running up to me saying, "Yo, Flash, Flash, Flash."

I feel obliged to push this message - you don't wanna be like Flash,

you don't want that lifestyle, you don't wanna be involved in that.

Shabba, you made it.

And how did you feel before the meeting?

Before the meeting, I was nervous. I'm not gonna lie.

I don't really get nervous like that.

This is some different kind of stuff, cos it's against all rules.

It goes against what I grew up to believe in,

even though it's rubbish.

For me to go into the room, I was nervous, thinking, "What is this?"

I could have went in there and he's gonna think,

"There's my man from that side of town. Let's get rid or fuck him up."

You wake up every day saying, "Something is not right."

Yeah.

I don't know if we're gonna get a next chance

to come back in a next world and do it again.

Well, we're only gonna get this one chance, innit, brother?

Like I says, you're only gonna be 10 once, 20 once, 30 once.

There's no part two of this, next year or in the next lifetime.

Bruv, right now, it's real.

I've lost a load of friends. I've lost a load of people.

A load of people around me... Misery, and a load of angry people.

You wake up and think, "I can't be living like this. It's not a joke."

Yeah, it's not. Do you get me?

You're burying your friend. You've done your crying.

You can't be living like this, man. This is crazy. You understand it?

Who else can I think of that's gonna come up and say,

"You know what? We have to stop this ting,"

and can actually get to the next side and get back and vice versa?

So it's a good thing for me to be sitting here with Dylan.

Being able to pass messages and get messages back and forward

to let people know it's not that time.

So you can't call five man out of college to do this job.

This job has to be taken care of by people that are affiliated,

whether they're out there banging...

You need to be around these members. Man, active...

In half an hours time,

I could be with a man who's licking off heads and that.

That's how real it is and it's a small world.

Yeah.

How are we gonna really do this? Kind of, like, you get me?

Like I says, it could, like...

it could put men in problems.

I'm not gonna lie. Some people might not like it.

It's gonna be hard to get through, though.

I don't get paid. There's no reward.

The only thing that could come of this is someone could say,

"Fuck him, we're lighting him up."

So that's why I know my heart's in it.

I believe, if we don't do it, no one's gonna do it.

We've gotta try and do it.

Even if nothing comes of it,

when they mention Burgers, Johnnies or war,

they'll know that at least there's a man out there thinking,

"I'll try and do something."

Man can’t ever tell me how much I've put my life on the line

for my community.

That thing what we did yesterday

is bigger than what anybody could imagine,