The Handshake Drug, created by UNM student Jeffrey Hertz, is a handmade leaflet that features poetry, drawings, and short essays which is distributed person to person and left in the Daily Lobo newspaper boxes without permission. Hertz builds interest around what he calls the ‘zine with a guerilla marketing style involving cryptically messaging ‘The Handshake Drug’ in chalk with no explanation of what it is or where to find it all around the University of New Mexico. By writing the title all over campus Hertz subliminally drills the ‘zine into the students and administrators’ minds and awareness as they glance down and read.
Hertz wants the distribution to be a personal experience, person to person, face to face, and hand to hand. Hertz is inspired by graffiti, but wants to legally expand his canvas space through the exchange and contact of the ‘zine. The title of the ‘zine is a reference to a drug deal and the handshake is a powerful symbol of exchange and communication. The ‘zine leaves blank pages at the back of every issue and enthusiastically encourages readers to submit their own contributions. Hertz’ goal is to get more people to express their ideas and art. Hertz wants to hear more independent voices take a stand rather than always being subjected to the Daily Lobo or other newspapers’ views. The value of human contact, alienation in high tech society, substance abuse, fast food, indulgences, environmentalism, sustainability, consumerism, and the human condition are all major themes in Hertz’ work.
This documentary will explore the creation of The Handshake Drug, its distribution and include interaction with the readers. In addition, the project will track the ‘zine’s journey and the person to person exchange of an alternative mass medium. we will join the followers and users of ‘The Drug’ in Zimmerman Plaza on Wednesdays to document their temporary expression with chalk, sharpies, and cardboard as a communication to the world. In our film project, we are opening up new paths of communication just as ‘The Drug’ does. Visually this project will reflect how mass communication can transform us from being distant, impersonal, and anonymous with cryptic messages to a personal expression of ideas and forming a community with a tangible, at your fingertips, mass medium.
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When this first began I enjoyed reading the Drug and I had met Jeff before but what I didn’t know is how involved the community is in the plaza. I really didn’t know where we were gonna take this or what the aim was but that all came to me as we were filming. Now as we edit it is really starting to come together, I know now the message that we are aiming for and I feel really positive about it. We got a lot of good footy and a lot of good dialogue. Let’s see if I can put it all together!
Filming was pretty fun there was lots of interesting people to talk to and I enjoyed listening to what people had to say. I learned that the people in the plaza aren’t just outcast hippies and that they really have good ideas which are motivating. I learned that through the face to face contact that they make everyday in the plaza they are strengthening the human condition. I enjoyed being sound tech and editor and being a part of this project. peace!!!!!
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Last night Jeff and his roommates were evicted from the art-partment. We were editing this afternoon then went to film once Jeff and the community arrived in the plaza. We wanted to capture their reactions of the event and the future of The Drug as a result of the eviction. We then went to the art-partment to see the changes being made, painting and packing up all the art. There was a very different vibe today, more reflective and contemplative than normal. We plan on making today’s footage a ‘what’s happened’ update at the end of the video. I have a feeling this draft of the video will be about 10 minutes.
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We have been filming in Zimmerman (Smith) Plaza every Wednesday and have captured a lot of amazing moments. It has been great filming in the plaza, except getting sunburned. Jeff has thanked us for our interactions and ethics during filming and it seems the community is supportive of the film project. I finally interviewed Nathan New of the Daily Lobo about the newspaper’s official opinion on The Drug and much more. In addition, we interviewed some students who have contributed to the ‘zine, they all came out great. We are excited to make use of the diagetic guitar songs of the plaza, shots of students and the Daily Lobo boxes, interviews, and chalkings and art of the community. I have asked Jeff to shoot some handheld first person scenes of him creating the zine at home by himself, but with our deadline I am not sure he will have time. I plan on making this project into a full length during the summer, so keep an eye out for it in the Daily Lobo boxes.
We have already captured all of our footage and begun editing. So far we have our intro and beginning complete and we are very pleased and excited about how it’s turning out. Gabe and I couldn’t help but burst out hysterically laughing at an odd ‘penguin-esque’ soundbite we kept hearing while editing an interview. And James’ cutthroat humor is hilarious, he thinks it’s ridiculous that I can’t grasp which objects have strong magnets in them (I’m very paranoid when it comes to protecting my tapes!) We are having a ton of fun editing it all together!
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Our documentary crew consists of director Jennifer Josephson, cinematographer James Baldwin, and sound technician Gabe Priestley. We have filmed around UNM, in Zimmerman Plaza a couple of times, and ventured to Jeff’s art-partment on March 9th to have a conversation about the making of the ‘zine and what has come of it.
It is very interesting just how many stop to write a thought down and discuss issues and daily life with this community. Several even took an interest in the documentary (and surprisingly stopped to read our notices). It seems that UNM’s post-regulation committee has several problems with Jeff’s hanging of ‘prayer’ flags and large formation in the space. During filming multiple representatives have come up to persistently talk to him about it, to no real success. He tries to cooperate with them by filling out bureaucratic forms, but believes that ‘they’ can never fully shut The Handshake Drug down.
We captured the process of Jeff pushing his shopping cart full of the community’s signs back to his pad with help from others who joined him in the plaza. It was very tiring transporting all the equipment around!
His art-partment is covered wall to wall with artwork, graffiti, and excerpts from The Handshake Drug. We discussed the beginnings of ‘The Drug’, and just how much work goes into it. We plan on shooting even more to delve deeper into the creation and hand to hand contact of the readers. It has been very fun doing this project and we have learned a lot of random stuff about each other so far, such as Gabe loves symmetry and can’t stand when purse straps fall down, James can rapidly change his accent, and Jenny is a crazy cat lady.
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From cryptically chalked messages to Jeff’s Art-partment
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Filming in Zimmerman Plaza on Wednesdays, come join us!
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