005 - Ricky Staub

Ricky Staub is an incredibly talented writer and director who has spent the past decade+ running a production company in Philadelphia called Neighborhood Film Co. Neighborhood, beyond being an accomplished and successful commercial company, also runs an apprenticeship program in which they hire one formally incarcerated person on their staff per year and train them in the art of film production. It's an incredibly inspiring program and one that has had a meaningful impact in the lives of many former inmates. But it's not for show, it's a manifestation of what Ricky and Dan and the Neighborhood team believe about how best to be of service in an industry that is often self-focused.
In 2019, Ricky and Dan wrote and Ricky directed their first feature film, Concrete Cowboy. The film was produced by Lee Daniels and starred Idris Elba, Caleb McLaughlin, and Jharrel Jerome. It premiered at TIFF in 2020 and was subsequently sold to Netflix. The story was based on a book that Ricky and Dan optioned nearly a decade prior and was one of nearly a half dozen feature scripts that they had written together and were ready to go. These guys work hard and write their way to the opportunities they're hoping for.
Ricky and I spoke quite specifically about his process, writing as the solution to all forward momentum, the peculiarities and challenges of making your first feature in the neighborhood where you've spent most of your adult life, and what it's like to have one of the most famous actors in the world agree to be in your first film.
I'm incredibly thankful to Ricky for taking the time to speak about Concrete Cowboy and the long road he travelled to get there.
Recorded in June 2020.