Urbanworld Vibe Film Festival
The Urbanworld Vibe Film Festival
hits town this week. Below is the
AroundHarlem.com must see list.
MR. UNTOUCHABLE
This is the true-life story of a junkie turned multimillionaire drug-lord. Mr. Untouchable takes you deep inside the heroin game. With the first hand testimony of the black Godfather himself, Nicky Barnes. This is an epic story of business, excess, greed and revenge.
Harlem’s Nicky Barnes was the most powerful black drug kingpin in New York City history. From humble beginnings he came to dominate the heroin distribution business and make himself and his comrades rich beyond their wildest dreams. Trusted and trained by the Italians he set up his own black crime family – The Council – a formidable drug collective.
The film has secured the testimony of Nicky Barnes himself. Barnes has broken the street code and his 23-year silence to tell all in this epic American dream story. We have also interviewed former members of The Council and others in the Barnes drug Collective. This is an inside look at the heroin business from the Kingpin at the top to the dealer and user on the street.
HELLFIGHTERS
For lack of money, field space, and the dominant ‘basketball culture’, there were no teams in Harlem until Duke Fergerson, a former professional football player, put together a community team of kids from different high schools and fielded the Harlem Hellfighters. “Hellfighters– A Season in Harlem,” the documentary feature film from first time filmmaker, Jon Frankel, is about their third season, and it follows the Hellfighters as they try to prove they deserve to represent Harlem’s high schools in the city’s Public School’s Athletic League. It’s a struggle every yard of the way, as Coach Fergerson strains against New York’s government bureaucracies and his own volatile temperament.
BLACKOUT
On Thursday, August 14, 2003, the City of New York was plunged into darkness as a major blackout impacted the electrical grid of 7 states and parts of Canada. For 2 days, the city was dark. Throughout this time, New York City elected officials reported on the calm and spirit of cooperation that had blanketed the city. Overall, these reports of calm may have been true, but for one neighborhood in Brooklyn, the situation was anything but … Blackout takes you inside the personal journey of what occurred during the blackout from the perspective of one neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY.
TIE A YELLOW RIBBON
Tie A Yellow Ribbon is a rare view into the emotionally complex interior of young Asian-American women in their often, troubled search for love, connection and belonging. Jenny is a twenty-something Korean adoptee who carries around intense hurt from her experiences with her white family. Bea, a former model and student, follows the strict
wishes of her family, sacrificing her desires to be a writer and seeks comfort with an abusive boyfriend. Sandy is a skittish, shy nursing student who can’t seem to find her own voice enough to be respected. One day, the three women cross paths in New York, igniting a series of events that tests their fragile sense of self. One of the first feature films to address the abnormally high rates of suicide among Asian-American women, this is a truly groundbreaking work.
TOO SAVED
Too Saved is an inspirational and spiritually enlightening love story centering on the life of Lisa (Lolita Clayton) a young single woman who is actively praying for her boyfriend Bobby (James “J.J.” Johnson) to accept Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. Unfortunately, when her prayer is answered, she finds out that it’s much more than she ever bargained for. Bobby’s conversion forces her into a serious examination of every important relationship in her life, including her childhood relationship with her parents and with God himself.
761st
761st Tank Battalion became the first African-American armored unit to fight in WWII. Requested by General George S. Patton, they assisted in heavy combat during the famous Battle of the Bulge. Despite this, they faced racism at home and death overseas, fighting a war for many freedoms they did not enjoy back home in America. This is their story.
BANISHED
From the 1860s to the 1920s, in more than a dozen towns, white Americans violently expelled their African American neighbors. Thousands of acres of land were lost. Thousands of families were forced to flee their homes. One hundred years later, many of these towns remain all white.
RESPOND TO SOUND II
Respond to Sound II is a feature documentary, depicting the evolution of Black American street dancing, from 1760 to 1960; this span of time laid the foundation for Hip Hop dancing. The film combines rare footage and commentary by contemporary Hip Hop artists (i.e. KRS-1, Black Eyed Peas) and yesterday’s Jazz Hoofers (i.e. Sammy Davis Jr., Sandman Sims). Vintage video clips, captured from 16mm reels dating back to the 1920s, illustrate the aforementioned perspective. Respond to Sound II also deals with the struggles Black dancers endured from racial discrimination; the film serves as an
educational and avante garde twist to the average Hip Hop documentary.
BE THE MAN
In Be The Man, 17-year-old Damien never realized that the only man he’s ever looked up to might not be the best example of what it means to be a man. Damien’s verbally abusive father has taught him to be strong, but that tough shell means trouble when Damien starts to treat his girlfriend the same way he’s seen his parents interact. Be The Man dramatically explores a young man’s coming of age in a harsh, sometimes cruel world.
PARIAH
A Bronx lesbian teenager juggles multiple identities to avoid rejection from friends and family, but pressure from home, school, and within corrodes the line between her dual personas with explosive consequences.
SKIN
A Black woman wakes up ill during a thunderstorm. Sick and unable to get up, she crawls on the floor as three past occurrences in her life are recounted. With each recalled event she gets more and more ill until she is compelled to symbolically expel her anguish and deep seeded desire to be White.
AFRICAN UNDERGROUND: DEMOCRACY IN DAKAR
African Underground: Democracy In Dakar explores the transformative role of hip-hop on politics in Senegal, West Africa during the February 2007 presidential election campaign. Looking at the election through the eyes of hip-hop artists around Dakar, Senegal’s capital, this documentary mixes interviews, freestyles, and commentary from journalists, artists and politicians. Senegalese society is seen on the brink of democratic change, where hip-hop artists are one of the few groups un-afraid of speaking out, despite real attempts at intimidation. Originally shot as a series of shorts distributed via the internet, African Underground: Democracy In Dakar explores the boundaries of guerrilla-style film production & distribution.
To find out more details about the film festival and see a full listing of films, click here.