Press Notes In My Fathers House - s3.amazonaws.com€¦ ·...
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World Premiere at Tribeca Film Festival – World Documentary Feature Competition Public Screenings at Tribeca Film Festival 2015 • Thursday, April 16 at 9:00 PM at SVA Theatre (Theater 1) – Red Carpet/World Premiere • Friday, April 17 at 6:30 PM at Bow Tie Chelsea Cinemas (Theater 6) • Sunday, April 19 at 2:30 PM at Regal Battery Park Stadium 11 (Theater 4) • Thursday, April 23 at 6:00 PM at Bow Tie Chelsea Cinemas (Theater 7) All screenings will be followed by a Q&A with filmmakers and film subjects Press & Industry Screening • Friday, April 17 at 11:00 AM at Regal Battery Park Stadium 11 (Theater 3) Filmmakers Ricki Stern & Annie Sundberg at “Meet the Filmmakers” Series • Friday, April 17 from 5:00-‐6:00 PM at Apple Store SoHo at 103 Prince Street
Press contacts:
Adam J. Segal, (202) 422-‐4673 or [email protected] Jacqueline Gurgui, (845) 706-‐1332 or [email protected]
Sales contacts: John Sloss/Linzee Troubh, Cinetic Media, Inc.
[email protected] or [email protected] (212) 204-‐7979
After moving into his childhood home on Chicago’s South Side, Grammy Award–winning rapper Che "Rhymefest" Smith hesitantly sets out to reconnect with his estranged father, the man who abandoned him over twenty years ago. In My Father’s House is a stirring, multigenerational chronicle of Che's sincere but often-‐fraught journey to build a future for his own family by reconnecting with his traumatic past.
– Tribeca Film Festival
Synopsis Set against the crumbling landscape of Chicago’s battered south side, IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE is a yearlong journey from homelessness and alcoholism to self-‐discovery and redemption as Grammy-‐winning rapper Che “Rhymefest” Smith reunites with his homeless father in a quest to reclaim his neighborhood and discover his true self as a father and son. Che, a co-‐writer on the Academy Award-‐winning and Golden Globe-‐winning original song “Glory” from the 2014 motion picture Selma (Best Picture Oscar nominee), is also know for his insightful anthems "Jesus Walks" and "Bullet" and has long found inspiration in issues facing the African-‐American community, including the growing crisis of fatherlessness and gang violence. Himself a child of a broken home, Che hasn't seen his father, Brian, in over 25 years, and presumes him dead. But after buying his father's childhood home, Che sets out to find him, and learns that he is now a homeless alcoholic living only several blocks away. Determined to rehabilitate him -‐ and forge a new legacy for his own young family -‐ Che soon realizes Brian may not be ready to take on the responsibilities asked of him.
Directors’ Statement: Ricki Stern & Annie Sundberg, In My Father’s House We came to make IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE in a surprising and unexpected way. Two years ago, we received a call from our friend Daniel Kellison, a producer in Los Angeles. Daniel was sitting with Che “Rhymefest” Smith, a Chicago rap artist he’d met when he was producing Jimmy Kimmel Live. Che, recently a co-‐writer on the Oscar winning song “Glory” was then a Grammy-‐winning rapper who co-‐wrote “Jesus Walks” with Kanye West and had been a featured performer on Kimmel’s show. On a hurried phone call, Che shared his story with us and we were hooked. Che, who’d had some uneven success as a rapper, explained that he had recently purchased his father’s childhood home in the Chatham neighborhood of Chicago’s south side and had moved in with his wife Donnie, a Chicago school teacher, and his 14 -‐year-‐old son Solomon. Che was looking for stability for his own family and a safer neighborhood for Solomon, and Chatham has a strong history as a solid community that has held together against the increasing violence and gang pressures of the south side. Che hadn’t seen his father in over 25 years. Che had grown up with his grandparents and his mother, who was 15 when she gave birth to Che and battled drug addiction throughout Che’s early childhood. Che had only vague memories of his father as someone who came by sporadically, drank beer in the basement, and occasionally took him to movies. In the first few months of living in a house loaded with family history, Che started to relive these few childhood memories and was left with more questions than answers. As Che looked at his own son, who was roughly the age he had been when his father disappeared from his life, Che found himself overwhelmed with a need to find his father. Not knowing if his father was still in Chicago -‐ or even alive -‐ he called his mother and with relative ease tracked down his father. He was drinking every day and living at a homeless center just blocks from where his wife taught school. The next day, Che met his father -‐ who he had last seen when he was 12 years old -‐ at their neighborhood library. His father, Brian, was overcome with emotion but Che was wary. He was afraid to fully embrace the man he felt had abandoned him and he was not ready to call him dad. He wasn’t sure what this relationship would require, or if he wanted any part of it.
When Che finished telling us about meeting his father, we were concerned that we had missed the emotional trigger for the story by not filming the first reunion in the library. Che then explained that as a rapper, and as a person growing up without a sense of legacy and history, he was accustomed to documenting his life. Che had filmed the day he found the house, the weeks spent settling in and unpacking boxes…. and the day he met his father! Che shipped us all this early footage overnight and we watched everything he had shot. One week later, we booked tickets to Chicago and began what would end up as an 18-‐month experience tracking Che and his father’s journey from homelessness and alcoholism to self-‐discovery and redemption. The film is told through a range of visual mediums. Using cinema verite as the foundation, the film moves back and forth in time adding historical resonance and emotional layers or memory with super 8 film footage, home movies, family photos and archival materials. As we began filming, the film shifted from Che’s first person narrative of a man looking to understand his father and reconcile his feelings of abandonment, to Brian’s story of struggle and recovery. As Che and Brian began to piece together their disjointed history, they also struggled through hard moments that shifted their perceptions and expectations of each other. Slowly, they began building trust and create a new framework for their relationship; through their healing, we experienced how Che’s family and the young people Che mentors were all strengthened in turn. It took a lot of work on both Che’s and Brian’s part, but we witnessed a profound element of forgiveness and acceptance that allowed both of them to heal, and to help others around them do the same. The house, as a keeper of memories, became its own character in the film; scenes play out mostly with the house at the center – it is where Che learns about the paternity of a daughter, where Donnie, his wife, pastes together her memories into scrapbooks; it is the place for conflict and becomes the place for the family to come together to reconcile over holiday dinners. The house sparks the journey into the past and ultimately becomes the home for future memories. While the circumstances surrounding Che and Brian’s journey are unique, we were struck by the universality of their experience. We connected to their desire to understand their past and to forge a family legacy. This common need to understand who we are, and where we come from, is what drives the film’s narrative and through this very intimate, private perspective we witness the impact on the next generation.
About the Filmmakers Ricki Stern
Annie Sundberg
Emmy nominated directors, writers, and producers Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg’s credits include "Joan Rivers – A Piece of Work" which premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival where it won the US Documentary Prize for Best Editing; the 2008 Emmy nominated documentary feature "The Devil Came On Horseback;" and the 2007 Emmy nominated feature "The Trials of Darryl Hunt." Their most recent film "Knuckleball!" (an MLB co-‐production) is a classic sports story that recounts the 2011 journey of the last professional knuckleball pitchers: Tim Wakefield, a 17-‐year Red Sox veteran, and Mets up-‐and comer R.A. Dickey -‐ who was honored with the Cy Young award in 2012. Together with just four other living knuckleball they shine a light on their remarkable brotherhood and the shared pursuit of honor and craftsmanship. "Knuckleball!" premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2012. Other recent films include the Emmy nominated "Burma Soldier" which premiered on HBO in May 2011. The film tells the story of a former junta member and Burmese soldier who risks everything to become a pro-‐democracy activist. "Burma Soldier" was nominated for a 2011 Irish Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary, and premiered as a centerpiece screening at the 2011 Full Frame Festival in North Carolina, where Ricki and Annie received the 2011 Career Achievement Award.
About Che “Rhymefest” Smith
As a writer, artist, activist, political organizer and teacher, Che "Rhymefest" Smith has cracked glass ceilings and shattered negative stereotypes about hip-‐hop. In 2005, Rhymefest won a Grammy for co-‐writing the mega-‐hit "Jesus Walks" with his childhood friend Kanye West. In 2006 he released his critically acclaimed "Blue Collar" Album on Clive Davis's J-‐records. Che took a break from the music industry to become more active on Chicago's south-‐side to reduce violence by teaching Creative Writing and Civic Engagement to youth. In 2011, he ran for City Council forcing the incumbent into a run-‐off election. Che lost by a few hundred votes, but through his efforts proved that hip-‐hop has a political voice and artists in the genre can mount viable campaigns. In 2013 Che, Kanye and Che's wife Donnie Smith founded Donda's House. Donda's House is a non-‐profit premium Arts program that teaches youth 15-‐24 years old Health & Wellness techniques, Studio Etiquette & Creative Writing. Donda's House has served over 120 + youth with free instruction and continues to be a force for creative change in Chicago. In 2014 Rhymefest was nominated for a Grammy for his work on Kanye West's "Yeezus" album for the song "New Slaves." In 2015 Rhymefest won a Critics Choice award, for his work on "Glory" from the motion picture Selma along with John Legend and Common. The song also won the Golden Globe and Academy Award (Oscar). Che belives "true power is the power to empower others."
Credits Director: Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg Screenwriter: Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg, Pax Wassermann Producer: Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg Producer: Charles Miller, Daniel Kellison Co-‐Producer: Jameka Autry Editor: Pax Wassermann, Tim K. Smith Cinematographer: Charles Miller Composer: Paul Brill Cast: Che "Rhymefest" Smith, Brian Tillman, Donnie Smith