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BY MORGAN LYLESpecial to Newsday

The first time Jor-dan Crafton en-tered a movie inhis college’s stu-dent film festival,he bombed.

Crafton’s short film, “This IsWhat Happens,” about a claus-trophobic ninja avenging hisabused mother, earned a scoreof just 30 out of 90 from thejudges at the University ofSouth Carolina in a 2006 con-test. The Baldwin native couldhave chalked up the low score tothe fact that his major was hospi-tality management, not film, andgiven up any serious ambitionsabout show business.

But by then, the sophomore’slongtime interest in film hadbecome a passion. So he took thescore sheet to Kinko’s, blew it upto 24-by-36 inches and hung it onhis dorm room wall for motiva-tion. He submitted another entrythe following year and came in avery respectable third out ofmore than 30 entrants.

“I was the only kid at thefestival who wasn’t a filmstudent,” Crafton recalled. “Itgave me credibility.”

That determined focus hasgotten Crafton where he istoday: director of photographyand editor for Nick Cannon’s“TeenNick Top 10,” on theNickelodeon TV channel, andproducer of two documenta-ries about life on Long Island.

It sustained him through longnights of working after work. Itgave him the nerve to pester hisway into the company of one ofthe top names in entertainment.And along with a strong faithinstilled by his parents, it helpedhim deal with the heartbreakingloss in 2009 of his childhood

See COVER STORY on G6

Above, Jordan Crafton editsat home. At left, Frank Abel,Uniondale High’s former banddirector, is featured inCrafton’s film about the band.

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ON THE COVER. JordanCrafton, 26, went from thehospitality business to thedirector’s chair, without anyformal training.

Lens on LI & successDocumentaryfilmmakerendures friend’sloss, fulfills bothof their dreams

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‘It’s Showtime’ marches across the big screen

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Above and at right, scenes from “It’s Showtime,” which began as atribute to Uniondale High School’s now retired band director.] More photos and video: newsday.com/lilife JO

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A scene from Crafton’s latest movie “It’s Showtime,” featuring the marching band from his alma mater, Uniondale High School. Crafton is a 2005 graduate.

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friend and film company part-ner, Tyrell Spencer.

“I release a new video everyyear on the day he passed away,”Crafton said, referring to Nov.24 and the car crash that killedhis best friend. And he said the“D” in the name of his produc-tion company, JDC Films, nolonger stands for his middlename, Dexter, but for Spencer’s,which was DeVaughn.

Encouraged from the startCrafton, 26, who now lives in

Mahwah, N.J., is the youngest ofthree sons of John Crafton, aretired deputy superintendentwith the New York City TransitAuthority, and his wife, Jeanette,a retired teacher. He also has asister, Susan Harper, 48, wholives in Hempstead and is aminister at a Brooklyn church.Her mother, John Crafton’s firstwife, died a few months afterHarper’s birth.

Crafton’s brother John, 36, isa Manhattan real estate agentwho lives in Amityville. Jason,31, lives in Nyack and is headcoach of the Nyack Collegemen’s basketball team.

The brothers were raised inan atmosphere where hardwork was encouraged andsupport was freely given.

“As a teacher, I didn’t toleratenonchalance,” said JeanetteCrafton, a lifelong educator wholast taught at PS 251 in Spring-field Gardens, Queens. “Weestablished excellent morals.You have to realize there are alot of sacrifices to make in orderto achieve excellence.”

Crafton was a good student atUniondale High School, andreturned in 2009 to give thecommencement address. Incollege, even after his father saidit would be OK to change hismajor to film, Crafton stuckwith hospitality management,reasoning that a steady jobmanaging a restaurant wouldhelp finance his film career.

Indeed, it was his mother’s busyschedule — she also was a tutorand led a weekend reading pro-gram for children, among otherthings — that turned Crafton intoa once and future hotelier.

When he was 8, he wouldset up his bedroom like a hotelroom for his mother to relax inafter work. She could order

COVER STORY from G4

Filmmakers and friends Jordan Crafton, left, and Tyrell Spencer outside their alma mater, Uniondale High School, in June 2009,before their 75-minute film, “My Block: Strong Island,”was screened at the school. Spencer died later that year.

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Filmmaker Jordan Crafton (back row, right) with his family. From left, brother Jason, mom Jeanette,father John E. (back row) brother John, sister-in-law Michelle and sister Susan Harper.

‘My Block: Strong Island’room service through the“intercom,” which was actuallyan old baby monitor.

“He acted as if he was at thefront desk,” Jeanette Craftonsaid, chuckling at the memory.“And he said, ‘When you checkout, please remember to referme to your friends and tell themwhat a nice time you had.’ ”

Crafton’s grand plan is toagain one day cater to his moth-er’s relaxation needs, but rightnow he’s focused on laying thefoundation to achieve that goal.These days, he still doesn’t owna couch and doesn’t have cablein his apartment.

“When I come home, I haveto work,” he said. “That wasthe biggest ingredient in mysuccess after college, keepingmy life intact — and I hate tosay it this way — but not toallow myself to enjoy myself.”

The perfect partnershipCrafton met Spencer in a

seventh-grade Spanish class,and the two became fast friends.

“I had my older brothers whoI looked up to the most,”Crafton said. “But Tyrell was atougher kid than me. I thinkthat’s why we mixed so well. I

was tough, but I was the smarterkid. Tyrell was gifted, but he hadthe street smarts and the savvy.”

It was Spencer who had theidea for what would becomeJDC Films’ first big project.

“He said, ‘We should do amovie about the town. We’regonna be heroes.’ ”

Crafton borrowed moneyfrom his father to buy the lasttwo Sony Handycam hi-defini-tion video cameras at a Best Buynear campus that was closing.He worked at a restaurant to payback what he owed, and eagerlyreturned to New York in thesummer of 2007 to start work onthe project. He had no formaltraining then or since, so helearned the basics of shootingand editing film from books andYouTube tutorials.

The result was 2009’s “MyBlock: Strong Island,” a75-minute documentary follow-ing 15 youths from Uniondale,Freeport, Hempstead and otherpredominantly African-Ameri-can communities on Long Islandas they negotiated obstacles andstruggled to build lives andcareers. One of them, Nick,

See COVER STORY on G8

Jordan Crafton plans to release asequel to “My Block: StrongIsland” this summer, which willinclude older generations and

take a broader look at what theyoung filmmaker said are the“unique characters and ingredientsthat helped build the culture of ourhome.”

The project is being funded by theNational Center for Suburban Stud-ies at Hofstra University in Hemp-stead, as part of its Oral HistoryProject.

“My Block: Strong Island Part II”will “use our oral histories and theother materials we have gathered foreither inspiration or as source materi-al, and have it inform the story of themore diversified suburb we havetoday,” said Lawrence Levy, thecenter’s executive dean.

“The one thing that I’m sure of isthat it will be interesting, becauseJordan Crafton is a very interestingyoung filmmaker,” Levy said. “Oneday he’s going to be a thought leaderfor his generation.”

Meanwhile, the Long Island Stud-ies Institute and Hofstra UniversityArchives will sponsor a Feb. 19screening of “It’s Showtime” at 7p.m. in the school’s Guthart Cultur-al Center Theater, Axinn Library,First Floor, South Campus. Admis-sion will be free. Details will be onjdcfilmsonline.com.

— MORGAN LYLE

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Three young men from Crafton’s 2009 documentary “My Block: Strong Island,” which profiled 15youths and young professionals from predominantly African-American communities on Long Island.Crafton will release a sequel this summer, “My Block: Strong Island Part II,” featuring older generations.

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‘Strong Island,’revisited

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designed the poster for “It’s Showtime,”Crafton’s latest documentary. “MyBlock” carried a theme of hometownpride and resentment at playing secondfiddle to Manhattan, and was an officialselection at that year’s Long Island FilmFestival. It premiered on June 5 beforean audience of more than 450 people atthe Uniondale High auditorium.

“The biggest day of me and Tyrell’slife was the ‘Strong Island’ screening,”Crafton said.

Spencer died five months later. Hewas on his way home for Thanksgivingbreak from SUNY Potsdam, where hewas a history major, when the car inwhich he was a passenger overturned.The driver and another passenger,both from Long Island, were injured.

“He was the man,” Crafton said. “Whenhe passed away, it tore me apart. It abso-lutely tore me apart. I felt so alone.”

Spencer’s mother, Eydie, a Baldwinresident, still keeps in touch with Craftonand said she is proud of the legacy herson left with the “My Block” film.

“It was touching,” she said. “And it wasa positive look for young African-Ameri-cans. He [Tyrell] always thought Jordanwas a positive person. Tyrell, he knewthe street kids and he knew the positivekids, and he was friends with both. Buthe always stayed focused and stayed ontrack and knew what he wanted.”

Before Spencer died, he and Craftonwere collaborating long-distance on ashort promotional film about theUniondale High marching band and itsthen-director, Frank Abel, who wasretiring. Abel, who turns 68 on Feb. 3,led the band from 1996 to 2011.

Spencer and Crafton later decided toexpand the piece to a full-blown docu-mentary about the band’s 2009-2010season. After Spencer’s death, Craftonpressed on with the project and endedup with “It’s Showtime,” a film thatcaptures the exuberance of the marchingband experience and the affection of itsmembers for the larger-than-life Abel.

“It all started as a little film to saygoodbye to me when I was thinkingabout retiring,” said Abel. “Three yearslater it’s blossomed into this documen-tary that is awe-inspiring. Every time Isee it I’m so impressed.”

Meanwhile, the summer that “MyBlock” came out, Crafton completed atraining program at the Red Lobsterseafood restaurant in Hicksville, be-came manager of a Red Lobster inNanuet, Rockland County, N.Y., andmoved to Mahwah, N.J. In 2011, hetransferred to another Red Lobster inMiddletown, in Orange County, N.Y.

Between shifts, he began makinginroads in the entertainment world. Forthree years he was the personal videogra-pher for Terrence Davidson, hairstylistto celebrities including singers NickiMinaj, Patti LaBelle and Jennifer Hudson.

Crafton had settled on pop impresa-

rio and “America’s Got Talent” hostNick Cannon as a good match for hisskills, and launched an all-out effort tocontact him. He finally reached Can-non’s road manager, Dorian Graham,himself a documentary filmmaker, andlanded a meeting in early 2012.

“We got to see what his work ethicwas, how creative he was, getting hisinput on things, and we realized hewas a gem that we found and weshould lock him in,” Graham said.“He’s a hardworking kid. He’s learnedhis craft, and what he doesn’t knowhe’s ready to learn. He never felt likehe knew more than anybody else ortalked down to anybody, like a lot ofpeople in this industry do.”

Next came the call to meet Cannonbackstage at “America’s Got Talent.”Cannon asked him to help shoot somevideo — a golden, though unpaid, oppor-tunity. Eventually, Crafton was as-signed, with pay, to shoot and edit thepilot of “TeenNick Top 10,” whichwould air on New Year’s Eve 2012.

The show — a weekly roundup ofwhat’s hot in music, videos and culture,and which features Cannon chattingwith celebrities and discussing up-and-coming artists — was a hit and the net-work picked it up. In January 2013 he leftRed Lobster, and within a month he hadbeen named director of photography andeditor of “TeenNick Top 10.”

A Long Island successCrafton hasn’t started shopping for a

couch, and he still drives the 2002 HondaAccord that he said he and Spencer“borderline lived in” when promoting“My Block.” He is planning a sequel tothat documentary that will focus onolder Long Islanders. Still, he hopes tobroaden his scope from documentariesto dramas, and to topics beyond hisbeloved Long Island.

Though he doesn’t feel he’s “made it”yet, Crafton feels confident he is provingone of the points made in “My Block”:Long Islanders can be successful, too.

“I like being from where I’m from,” hesaid. “It matters. I’m as strong a hustleras people from Harlem or Manhattan orwhatever. Just because we have treesand squirrels doesn’t mean we’re anyless New Yorkers than anybody else.”

COVER STORY from G6

Nick, a graphic designer, was one of 15young professionals in “My Block.”

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