‘The Drug Years’ airs on VH1, Sundance

Dana Heinz Perry and her husband Hart Perry

Dana Heinz Perry ’85 learned the art of filmmaking at CC — as a dance major.

“Studying dance and becoming a filmmaker is actually not that far-fetched,” she said. “It’s still about movement, storytelling, pacing and composition.”

Perry and her husband Hart recently teamed up to produce “The Drug Years,” a documentary film that explores the development and impact of an illegal drug culture in the United States during the second half of the 20th century.

The four-part series debuted on VH1 June 12 and ran through June 15. The series encored on the Sundance Channel June 16 and 17.

VH1 approached the Perrys about creating a pop culture historic series after they produced a five-hour piece on the history of hip hop for the channel called, “And You Don’t Stop: 30 Years of Hip-Hop” in 2004.

Perry, in 1989, with rapper Flavor Flav during the making of "Public Enemy: Fight the Power Live," the first hip-hop home videoever produced. Perry produced and directed the project.

“We played around with something about the 1960s, but ended up using the theme of illicit drugs as a more specific lens to look at the last four decades,” Perry said. “I guess they figured it would be edgy and original, which it turned out to be.”

The series uses archival footage and interviews from the 1950s to the present to illustrate how popular culture shaped public perceptions of illicit drugs. Drug smugglers, drug enforcement agents and actors and musicians, including John Mellencamp, Jackson Browne and Ray Manzarek from The Doors are featured in interviews. The series also looks at how drugs became part of the nation’s political landscape, from the youth rebellions of the 1960s to the War on Drugs.

In addition to the skills she gained as a dance student, Perry said that she learned how to write well at CC and took some anthropology courses that taught her how to examine a culture.

“The rest [of filmmaking] is just learning the craft,” she said. “Listening and responding to the subject you are interviewing, and learning how to weave together the music, dialogue and footage to tell a coherent and entertaining story.”

The Perrys founded their New York City production company Perry Films in 1989. They have produced more than 50 films.