We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Curtis Mozie a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Curtis, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

It started back in the 1980s when my big brother bought a Sony Beta video camera, he would be home filming the fish in the fish tank. I just hated that darn camera. One day I was home bored and picked up the video camera cut it on and I began to like it. I took it outside in my community and began filming my friends on tape, playing basketball, at a block party, dancing, and having a good time. Capturing life & death.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Curtis Mozie known as ‘C-Webb,’ is without a doubt a social change leader in Washington DC. For over 30 years, he has documented the life and death of youth lost to gun violence. When Curtis is not working his day job at the Kennedy Recreation Center as a recreation specialist, he spends almost every waking moment trying to prevent gangs and gun violence from taking place on the streets of DC. He started the Tale Of The Tape Foundation to produce and utilize his films as a catalyst for principles of prevention. His films have enabled unique collaborations between at-risk youth group efforts towards positive social change.

Very few are able to bridge the trust gap between law enforcement and teenagers. Curtis has been a ‘fit’ for this schism because of his former experience as a law enforcement officer, and his T.O.T. foundations’ commitments in communities. This has granted him and his camera access into gang culture to intimately put lenses on the social workings of their violent and brutal world. His video camera captures their regular social interactions in basketball games; crisis situations of an active shooting, hospital rooms, and post-situation interviews where sentiments, grief, and words of prevention interviews are recorded at the “Safe House” and developed into heartfelt stories which the youth in DC respond to. Daily Curtis receives calls from children of murdered parents asking for a copy of their parents’ videos whom they never met, to see how they smiled, walked, talked, all taken away due to acts of gun violence.

Tale of The Tape is a film about the senseless loss of lives and timely interventions to prevent deaths. Filming these intense, tragic moments can be incredibly difficult. “These young men are sons, fathers, and neighbors; thus my friends and I are there to mourn the loss with their family members and friends,” says Curtis.

Coverage about Curtis Mozie’s tireless efforts includes features press: Washington Post, Fox-5 Hometown Hero Award, Nightline, NPR, News 4, ABC, CBS, DC cable channel 28, Mad Flavor’s cable channel with Allen Iverson Stop the Violence Event and ON B.E.T. Featured in a film in Germany, The Life of Curtis Mozie, Partnerships with NBA All-Star/TNT Chris Webber and Rapper Nas. Curtis has written a book memoir after 30 years of working with over 100 families. It’s a 600-page book titled ‘Beyond The Yellow Tape.’, his recently published book “DC Gun Violence Our Youth Under Attack” has 200 pages.

Curtis has unfaltering dedication and commitment to making the streets of DC safer for youth in all neighborhoods. It is a constant reminder to all of us how incredibly strong and resilient the human spirit can be.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I opened my home as a safe house for youth and adults trying to escape the dangers of the streets. They came to me and gave me their dying confession on videotape about how they want me to keep their name and memory alive, so that when they get killed, their families, unborn children, and friends can watch them on my video tapes alive and remember their fun times together. Although most of the youth that came to me at my safe house were unfortunately shot & killed, some days later, some the same day, others a few years later. I was sad and hurt having to be the one to tell the last story of their life before they were killed. But they left behind, lessons learned for those youth that come behind them to see and hear the consequences of how their actions can cause harm to communities, families, and friends. I lost over 100 youths that I have filmed and mentored over the years. I have produced DVDs of their short life showing them alive and happy at a party, basketball court, or just being foolish on camera. I then give the videos to their loved ones, to their children that hadden been born yet at the time of their death to help bring closure and to cherish it forever. The murders seem to keep happening, but I can’t give up, the children still reaching out to me, wanting to see their daddy for the first time on my videotape. I can’t give up, I can’t stop, the youth need us now more than ever.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to continue to mentor our youth from at-risk behavior by engaging in them serious talk about gangs and guns, on how making bad choices in life can be harmful and deadly. Showing them my real-life lessons learned from films on the importance to avoid the trauma and heartache that are depicted in my films. They get the chance to see young people like them, alive and full of life, then it’s all taken away. This is not a video game where you can hit reset and start over again, no, you get only one shot, and there’s no rewind button. So my wish is that no youth have to go through being shot at a young age, to be buried at a young age causing hurt and pain to their families. These videos I produce are making a difference in helping youth make wise choices in life. Many of the youth have told me so, it has changed their lives for the better, and many have gone on to be police officers, and firemen, and to college playing sports. Being positive people in their communities thanks to my real-life films.      

Contact Info:

• Instagram: DCCWEBB
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dctaleofthetape/
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/curtis-mozie-84945a55/
• Twitter: twitter.com/DCTALEOFTHETAPE
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCISrhvoBj-fQa9vHkj-7uzw

Image Credits
Curtis Mozie/Nasir ‘NAS’ Jones