SUAFilm
We’re accepting submissions from filmmakers for SUAF2012. Below, find more info about some of the films that were featured during last year’s festival.
SUAFilm Themes
In 2011, we had two major themes gleened from the year’s submissions. The feature theme was “Women and Hip-Hop”. Women’s involvement in the early days of hip-hop focused more on themes surrounding liberation and freedom from objectification as simply a sex object. Today’s mainstream hip-hop has taken a negative turn, with even the most prominent female emcees simply bowing down to a male-dominated industry, becoming the exact opposite of early female rappers like Queen Latifah and MC Lyte. SUAFilm proudly featured two films that explored the role of women in hip-hop from childhood to adulthood its affects on youth culture and its role in the lives of the many female emcees working diligently to break through as the new female rap artist on their own terms.
Our secondary themes came from the various short films shown last year: “Green Mobility & Saving Youth“. Two short films that offer insights into how a bike and a skateboard can change the life of a young person in war torn Afghanistan and a California community riddled with crime and poverty.
We are proud and grateful to all the filmmakers who allowed their works of art to be showcased last year at SUAFilm!
SUAFilm Schedule:
6:00pm-Feature Block
Say My Name
7:30pm-Shorts Block
Skatetistan
The Scraper Bike King
Kid Syc@Brandywine
8:15pm-Feature Block
P-Star Rising
Feature Film:
P-Star Rising
Director: Gabriel Noble www.gabrielnoble.com
Producer: Marjan Tehrani www.trufilms.com
Film Website: www.pstarrising.com
At age 9, Priscilla, an adorable yet precocious little girl, tells her single-father, Jesse,: “I am going to become a rapper and fulfill your dreams of succeeding in the music business.” Moved by Priscilla’s passion and impressed with her natural talent and undeniable charisma, he begins to teach her all he knows about rapping. In the four years that follow there is no question that rapping has brought Priscilla closer to her estranged father, and that her success has made him proud. Before our eyes, this father-daughter duo go from a one-bedroom shelter in Harlem to a 4 bedroom apartment, from food stamps to shopping sprees, from rapping on street corners to sold out night clubs, and from sneaking under train turnstiles without the $2 fare to spare to being driven around in tinted SUV’s. It is further undeniable that Jesse has been reborn, from looking at old photos and bitterly reflecting on how he never was given the respect he deserved in the music business as a rapper himself to finding his own voice and self-respect as his daughter’s overzealous manager. But in the efforts to make her dad proud, Priscilla struggles to remain a child and finds herself trapped in a world of people twice her size and four times her age and doesn’t know who to trust. Jesse himself is caught between wanting to protect his daughter’ innocence and exploiting her raw talent to fulfill his deferred dream. All they know is that the ride has just begun.
Feature Film:
Say My Name: Women in Hip-Hop
Producer: Women Make Movies www.wmm.com
Film Website: Say My Name
In a hip hop and R’n’B world dominated by men and noted for misogyny, the unstoppable female lyricists of SAY MY NAME speak candidly about class, race, and gender in pursuing their passions as female MCs. This worldwide documentary takes viewers on a vibrant tour of urban culture and musical movement, from hip hop’s birthplace in the Bronx, to grime on London’s Eastside, to Philly, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, and L.A., and points in between.
Featuring interviews and musical performances from a diverse cast of women that includes Remy Ma, Rah Digga, Jean Grae, Erykah Badu, Estelle, as well as newcomers Chocolate Thai, Invincible and Miz Korona, this powerful documentary delves into the amazing personal stories of women balancing professional dreams with the stark realities of poor urban communities, race, sexism, and motherhood. The more than 18 artists featured in SAY MY NAME battle for a place in a society that creates few chances for women. From emerging artists filled with new creativity, to true pioneers like MC Lyte, Roxxanne Shante, and Monie Love, these are women turning adversity into art.
Short Film:
Skateistan: Four Wheels & a Board in Kabul
Director: Orlando von Einsiedel
Producer: Orland von Einsiedel
Film Website: www.skateistanthemovie.com
An award winning short that follows the story of 2 Afghan children whose lives
have been turned around by skateboarding and the Skateistan education
project. In 2007, OLIVER PERCOVICH and SHARNA NOLAN arrived in Kabul with little more than a couple of skateboards. In a country where children make up more than half the population, Ollie and Sharna soon discovered that their boards drew in local children like an unstoppable magnetic force. After beginning regular skateboarding sessions in an abandoned Russian fountain in the district of Mekroyan, a group of local boys began to join them. Then came the girls. These initial sessions, informal at first, eventually led to the foundation of Skateistan, Afghanistan’s first co-educational skateboard school. This is Skateistan’s story.
Short Film:
The Scraper Bike King
Director: Rafael Flores
Producer: Rafael Flores
Film Website: www.greeneyedmedia.com
A touching documentary about the original creator of the Oakland-based Scraper Bike Movement: Tyrone Stevenson Jr. This film investigates how the 19 year-old entrepreneur first began the bicycle movement as a way to get kids off the mean streets of East Oakland. His recent fame generated by his Scraper Bike Theme Song on “YouTube” has catapulted him into stardom and his organization has been growing ever since.