Degradation Inc. -- Degrading the Homeless as Entertainment

[theHandpuppet]

This is some sick shit. I was aware of these videos but was shocked to read they are still being made.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/magazine/06wwln_phenomenon.html?ex=1155528000&en=92b2b83f0a5bebb0&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Degradation Inc.
By AIMEE MOLLOY
Published: August 6, 2006

Of all the things Rufus Hannah regrets — discovering alcohol at age 14, living homeless for 12 years — it is his notoriety that haunts him. Every time someone recognizes him, he told me recently, he feels “so ashamed.” Hannah, known to his fans as Rufus the Stunt Bum, is one of the inadvertent stars of a DVD series called “Bumfights.” Filmed on the streets of suburban San Diego and Las Vegas, the videos portray homeless people fighting one another, being pushed down hills in shopping carts and jumping off buildings into Dumpsters. What unfolds looks like a cross between “Jackass,” MTV’s stunt-based show, and a cinéma vérité portrait of the homeless as addicted, crazy and desperate enough to, for a little cash, light their hair on fire, pull out a tooth with pliers and have “Bumfights” tattooed on their bodies.


Hannah, who is 51 and an Army veteran, became involved with Bumfights more than five years ago, when Ryan McPherson, a high-school student and aspiring filmmaker, offered him $5 to run headfirst into milk crates stacked in the parking lot of a grocery store in El Cajon, Calif. “He told me he was doing a video for his economics class on what it was like when you don’t have a job,” Hannah said. “I just wanted some money to get drunk, so I did what he told me to. I never had any idea the stuff he was filming would become what it did.”

What it became, according to the film’s producers, was the “fastest-selling independent video series.” Released in 2002, the first “Bumfights” sold for $19.95, mainly through the Bumfights Web site. Soon after, McPherson and his fellow filmmakers sold the rights for $1.5 million to two Las Vegas producers, who have since churned out sequels. Sales, initially modest but steady, exploded after Howard Stern featured the video on air. Within six months, revenues neared $600,000....

MORE

[benddem]

1. who is sicker?

the brat that made the films or the morans who bought them. Want to make a bet...they're Repugs.

[theHandpuppet]

2. Check this out -- you're not gonna believe this!

Talk about sick! This is from the front page of the bumfights website: http://www.bumfights.com/

The purpose of these videos, through satire and sensationalism, is to call attention to the global epidemics of poverty, violence, addiction, and lack of education. Fighting and violence of any form is ignorant and pathetic. Although the images we capture are often shocking, we do not believe these aspects of society should be kept hidden or ignored. You’ll see grown men trade blows on the streets, chick fights, stunts, sick pranks, crime caught on tape, crackheads, supermodels, and the most hardcore ruckus ever filmed. But please do not miss the point of these videos! Educate yourself. Help those who are less fortunate. Spread love not hate.

Oh yeah? Just how much of the profits from Bumfights goes to help the homeless, you shameless jerks!

BTW, check out their "product line". Degradation Inc is right.

[AngryOldDem]

3. The guys who film this shit....

...were on some news show recently (forget which one), and they basically said the same thing: We're helping the homeless by filming them beating the crap out of each other, as well as providing a cautionary tale to society at large about the hazards of crack. And, oh yeah, they're making money, too, but that isn't why they're doing it.

A pretty unconvincing news segment, to be honest.

[cool user name]

4. Isn't that inciting violence?

I'm for free speech but that's clearly incitement to violence.

Pathetic assholes.

[AngryOldDem]

5. I think it is...

and it disgusts me. These guys are out to make a buck, pure and simple, and no amount of perfume will take the stench away from the pile of shit.

[azurnoir]

6. Any lawyers here?

Wouldn't Rufus be entitled to some of the proceeds from the video? The kid apparently lied to him and there is no mention of a release, if not proceeds at least damages?