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A pair of first-time filmmakers with Suffolk County roots are making a splashy premiere at the Tribeca Festival in Manhattan with a documentary on Long Island’s outsized, yet often-overlooked influence on hip-hop.
“The Sixth Borough” features interviews with more than 20 hip-hop greats from Long Island, including Public Enemy frontman Chuck D. (Roosevelt), members of De La Soul (Amityville), the late Biz Markie (Patchogue) and Rakim (Wyandanch).
“First time I saw Rakim was in a [1992] movie called ‘Juice’ and I was like ‘Who’s this guy, where’s he from?’” said executive producer Andrew Theodorakis, 45, who grew up in Stony Brook. “And I had no idea these guys were in my backyard.”
The 70-minute documentary debuts June 11 at The Indeed Theater at Spring Studios, followed by performances from De La Soul and Rakim. It has two more screenings during the annual film festival, founded in 2002 by Hollywood heavyweights Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal.
“The Sixth Borough” is a decade-in-the-making labor of love for Theodorakis, a photographer and videographer who has been nominated for Pulitzer and Emmy awards, and Julian Petty, an entertainment lawyer who was raised in Amityville and now lives in Los Angeles.
The unlikely union of the two Suffolk County hip-hop aficionados grew out of a Greater Long Island story about Theodorakis’s early efforts to document the suburbs’ lesser-known hip-hop ties. The story included a one-minute reel that featured interview clips with Chuck D., Biz Markie and Rakim.
“We made Long Island fly,” Erick Sermon of the rap duo EPMD says during a segment shot in 2017. “But Elton John was probably before us, Billy Joel, whatever, one of them dudes that lives out here.”
Those words and images hooked Petty, 48.
“It was like the whole world just shook and everything came together,” he said.
As a one-time aspiring hip-hop artist — “I used to see Rakim just driving around, I’d see EPMD in the neighborhood,” he said — Petty saw potential to help tell a story that he believes needs to be told.
“I had been telling people for 30 years that Long Island had some of the best MCs in the world and had a bustling hip-hop community,” he said. “And people were like, ‘Eh, whatever.’”
Theodorakis had started working on the film around 2014 while shooting music videos as a side gig to his work as a wedding photographer.
“For a little bit of money, I would go and shoot a music video on the weekend,” said Theodorakis, a former Daily News lensman who also oversees video and photography projects for Greater Long Island. “Then I had the idea that this is an interesting subject, you know, about hip-hop not fitting the urban narrative and all these guys being from around here.”
Yet, he said, “few really know that” because of how hip-hop is associated with cities more than the suburbs.
“Everyone thinks Rakim is from Brooklyn or Harlem,” Theodorakis said. “People think Public Enemy is from Brooklyn, because that’s how it’s portrayed in the movies.”
Petty connected with the project after commenting on a Greater Long Island social media post about the article. He mentioned that he works as an entertainment attorney in Los Angeles and wrote, “If you need any help with it, please hit me up.”
That set in motion a cross-country partnership and accelerated the pace to develop the film — and open more doors.
“Julian was like waiting for this project, you know what I mean?” said Theodorakis, who started his journalism career in 1999 as an intern in the photo department of the New York Daily News. “He kind of had the same idea and the same story that he wanted to tell.”
Petty, an executive vice president at Warner Records, had helped De La Soul belatedly put its catalog of music on streaming platforms.
“He definitely made it so we could get a crew and put a little more of a budget behind it,” Theodorakis said. “It stepped up the game.”
Petty’s connections also helped bring on board Sweet Relief, a production company that is associated with the creators of “South Park.”
“Once we got them on board, we had all their resources,” Theodorakis said. “They have multiple producers, they have an editor, they have an archival producer and in a story like this, an archival producer is everything.”
With a crew of 11 and director Jason Pollard — whose credits include the 2021 hip-hop documentary “Ol’ Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys” and a 2023 documentary on jazz great Louis Armstrong — all that footage is now coming to the screen.
Theodorakis said he will push the entire week of the Tribeca Festival to find a distributor for “The Sixth Borough,” which is also set to be screened from July 31 to Aug. 3 at the Blackstar Film Festival in Philadelphia.
“We’re just starting to apply now and run the [film festival] circuit,” Theodorakis said.
Petty plans to fly to New York for the Tribeca premier and to soak up the thrill of having De La Soul and Rakim perform at the after-party.
The film’s “main character,” Petty said, is Long Island.
“To have these incredible acts perform after this documentary about Long Island and its impact on hip hop, that just makes it all complete,” he said. “You’re seeing their story, you’re seeing the Long Island story and then you actually get to see them in the flesh, do their thing.”
While Petty said he’s done with filmmaking after “The Sixth Borough” — “I do deals for a living, man, I’m an attorney,” he joked — Theodorakis wants to keep going.
He said that a documentary he has been working on about the late Craig Mack, the troubled “Flava In Ya Ear” rapper who died in 2018, remains in development. (Mack also grew up in Brentwood.)
Theodorakis said he’s thrilled to finally bring “The Sixth Borough” to the big screen, but is looking to embark on more film projects.
“That’s one story out of a million stories that came out of this music,” he said. “I want more stories about hip-hop in the next 10 to 15 years where we’re telling something different than what people know.”
Top: Jullian Petty (center) talks to Maseo (L) and Pos (R) with producer Katie Taber in Amityville. (Credit: Andrew Theodorakis)
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