The line between reality and fiction can get blurry while making a documentary. Having produced and worked on reality-based television series like MTV’s Made and A&E’s The First 48, Damon Russell is no stranger to the drama that occurs when cameras capture real events. When robbery boy and crack dealer Curtis Snow approached Russell to make a movie about his life, he jumped at the chance and spent the next year and a half filming documentary-style footage around Atlanta’s most dangerous neighborhood, The Bluff. The result, a film called Snow On Tha Bluff, premiered at the 2011 Slamdance Film Festival and immediately evoked questions about the truth of the events involved. While Hollywood gangsters are often cartoonish and lack dimension, Snow and Russell have created an authentic American story about struggle and survival.

SLUG: I was surprised by the amount of footage, it seemed like the camera was basically glued to your eye for the duration of filming. Is that true?
Russell: Yeah, and they did a good bit of filming when I wasn’t around, which was cool, ‘cause that’s some of the best stuff really. Whenever I was with [Snow], I would have it on, but there were things that were missed. I would leave and someone would get shot down the street—something that could have been of interest to the story, but when you’re shooting a movie like that you’re bound to miss things. You have to be thankful when you do capture something that’s never going to happen again.

SLUG: There are scenes of very graphic material in the film including violence and drug use. What was the hardest subject matter for you to shoot?
Russell: I’m pretty seasoned as far as having shot pretty extreme stuff. For me, it’s generally not fun unless it’s hard to shoot—if it’s not emotionally draining, I feel like I’m not doing anything. It’s exhilarating to be capturing something real. That supercedes whatever I’m feeling.

SLUG: Was there ever a question of, “by observing this, am I changing it?”
Russell: This is where I diverge from most documentary filmmakers. I use documentary techniques, but I’m definitely not a documentary filmmaker. As soon as you turn a camera on, you are changing the environment around you. Why not have fun with it and change it to something cool?

SLUG: I understand that for legal reasons, the authenticity of the footage and the events that take place have to remain ambiguous and you even destroyed unused footage. Can you tell us about any scenes you would’ve liked to include that didn’t make the cut?
Russell: There was a party scene that we did—I know where it would go in the movie, it would have been badass. But there were a bunch of people at this house and things started to get out of hand. We happened to be there with the camera, which was cool. But ultimately, I was worried someone would go to jail or all of us would go to jail and I would be guilty just by having been there. That tape—I watched it once and then I burned it. At some point people started getting so comfortable with me that they would start talking about stuff I didn’t want to hear about. I don’t want any knowledge of open crimes. Especially the younger kids—they didn’t realize if you put certain things on camera it could hurt you, they’re just wild. I had to censor that to look out for myself and others.