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Straight Outta Hunters Point Documentary screening + 2 shorts Feb 6, @ charm city art space
Independent Film Night Feb 6 , 2003 8:00
@ Charm City Art Space - 1729 N Maryland Ave , Baltimore MD
@ Charm City Art Space - 1729 N Maryland Ave , Baltimore MD
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STRAIGHT OUTTA HUNTERS POINT
Directed by Kevin Epps
Produced by Mastamind Prod.
run time: 75 minutes, DV, Color 2002
documentary
website: www.mastamind.com
Straight Outta Hunters Point is a challenging film, one that poses no easy solutions. San Francisco, filmmaker Kevin Epps gives us a portrait of what he knows best, the neighborhood where he grew up and still lives, Hunters Point. A complex depiction, Straight Outta covers the turf wars between rival gangs, the vital underground hip-hop scene, the history of how the neighborhood was transformed into a toxic dumping ground, and the everyday life of the community living there. It's a raw, street-level look at life in the projects as seen by an insider. The result is a dramatic portrait of a community in crisis, but one that has persevered. It doesn't get any more real than this. Director Kevin Epps is actually a resident of Hunters Point, and he uses his access to provide an almost unmediated view of life on the inside.
His film opens, with maps and a voiceover describing just why this prime bit of Bay Area real estate has been left to fester and decay. Originally a naval port and shipyard, the region was also home to a toxin-spewing power plant after the maritime economy slowed. Today, both are Superfund sites, and a large, mostly African-American community, lives between them.
Epps' film, shot on digital video, chronicles an especially violent time in the life of this community. In the midst of turf warfare and blood feuds between two neighborhood gangs and an economy seemingly based on substance abuse, small record labels produce and market hip-hop artists from the neighborhood. This is an authentic expression of real life, not a cynically marketed set of manufactured ghetto fantasies.
About the Director:
No one but Kevin Epps could have made a film like Straight Outta Hunters Point. The 33-year-old first-time director was in a unique position to cover H.P.'s murderous turf wars between the Big Block and Westmob gangs. Epps grew up in the West Point projects of San Francisco and still lives in Hunters Point. As he explains it, "That world wouldn't open up to an outsider." A onetime street hustla, Epps has become a role model for future independent filmmakers from the hood. He studied film at San Francisco State University and the Film Arts Foundation. Eventually through work in cable access, he began to collaborate with editor Joshua Callaghan on Straight Outta Hunters Point. In 2002 he co-founded the Hip Hop Film Festival and is part of the Center for Hip-Hop Education, a new nonprofit collective of California filmmakers trying to document hip-hop culture.
Directed by Kevin Epps
Produced by Mastamind Prod.
run time: 75 minutes, DV, Color 2002
documentary
website: www.mastamind.com
Straight Outta Hunters Point is a challenging film, one that poses no easy solutions. San Francisco, filmmaker Kevin Epps gives us a portrait of what he knows best, the neighborhood where he grew up and still lives, Hunters Point. A complex depiction, Straight Outta covers the turf wars between rival gangs, the vital underground hip-hop scene, the history of how the neighborhood was transformed into a toxic dumping ground, and the everyday life of the community living there. It's a raw, street-level look at life in the projects as seen by an insider. The result is a dramatic portrait of a community in crisis, but one that has persevered. It doesn't get any more real than this. Director Kevin Epps is actually a resident of Hunters Point, and he uses his access to provide an almost unmediated view of life on the inside.
His film opens, with maps and a voiceover describing just why this prime bit of Bay Area real estate has been left to fester and decay. Originally a naval port and shipyard, the region was also home to a toxin-spewing power plant after the maritime economy slowed. Today, both are Superfund sites, and a large, mostly African-American community, lives between them.
Epps' film, shot on digital video, chronicles an especially violent time in the life of this community. In the midst of turf warfare and blood feuds between two neighborhood gangs and an economy seemingly based on substance abuse, small record labels produce and market hip-hop artists from the neighborhood. This is an authentic expression of real life, not a cynically marketed set of manufactured ghetto fantasies.
About the Director:
No one but Kevin Epps could have made a film like Straight Outta Hunters Point. The 33-year-old first-time director was in a unique position to cover H.P.'s murderous turf wars between the Big Block and Westmob gangs. Epps grew up in the West Point projects of San Francisco and still lives in Hunters Point. As he explains it, "That world wouldn't open up to an outsider." A onetime street hustla, Epps has become a role model for future independent filmmakers from the hood. He studied film at San Francisco State University and the Film Arts Foundation. Eventually through work in cable access, he began to collaborate with editor Joshua Callaghan on Straight Outta Hunters Point. In 2002 he co-founded the Hip Hop Film Festival and is part of the Center for Hip-Hop Education, a new nonprofit collective of California filmmakers trying to document hip-hop culture.
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