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On the last day of Urbanworld Film Festival 2016, we caught up with some of the filmmakers on the red carpet.
Jean Elie talks A Gentleman Always:
I’m an actor/producer, and I am promoting A Gentleman Always. I’m here at Urban World 20th Anniversary and I am honored and humbled for the short program that I was involved in. The films were dope. Like, oh my gosh. It was an event. I am very appreciative that Urbanworld showed my film to be a part of it. I produced and acted in it. The film is an adaptation of William Faulkner’s The Reivers. It’s about what it means to be a gentleman. Something for the kids and something for the older generation to let people know that we should listen to them, because we tend to be in to ourselves versus listening to what’s going on with the older generation. They’ve been there so they’ll teach us a thing or two. I am from Boston. I am coming here by way of L.A.
Andrea-Rachel Parker stars in #72hrsBK:
| Tell me about how you got involved with the film. | |
| Andrea-Rachel P: I’ve actually known the co-founder of Reel Works Production, which is a production company that produced and helped finance this film. Through knowing her and working on a previous project we did, Shante’s Story. That was on NYC Life TV in 2013 and working with her … Her name is Stephanie Walters. Michael Boogie picked me who’s the AD to Spike Lee. That gave us a relationship and a history where we were comfortable. She knew that I was be able to transform into different things. Even though the character I did before was very different and complex, she just felt more secure in knowing that we could navigate the role of Kaia easily because of our connection. | |
| She just reached out to me and she said “Hey, I would like you to meet the kids who will help put out the atmosphere for the movie. The writer, the director, and watch the pre-film, the documentary that inspired this film.” From there, I loved it. I loved the story and I said “Yeah, I would love to jump on board. I would love to play Kaia.” That’s how we got talking. I went to workshops with them and we just felt out what the language would be. | |
| Tell me a little bit about the character. | |
| Andrea-Rachel P: I play the role of Kaia. Her entire name is ZeKaia Francis. She’s a young girl, maybe about sixteen, seventeen, who’s going through the motions of love. She’s been in love with a guy, dating a guy, since she was in elementary school. It’s young, puppy love. It’s a first time thing and you try to figure out what you will allow, what you won’t allow. What you will and won’t do for a relationship, and you also try to balance your life. | |
| When you’re in high school, you want to pretend like other things matter to you but really, the only thing that matters and that’s on your mind is a guy. You see her understanding that she wants to let go of this mentality. She wants to try new things and she wants to go to college and she wants to focus on her studies. The reality of it is, she has a really difficult time letting go of this guy and what they’ve been through and their friendship. He’s popular in his neighborhood and so you see the turmoil with her being the popular chick assigned to this guy. | |
| It’s very real. It’s gritty, it’s raw. She goes through a lot of things because of her relationship with him that puts love into a new, fresher perspective. Things that we don’t really talk about, or things we haven’t talked about in certain ways before, are exposed. It’s fun. | |
| Where are you from? Are you from New York or from somewhere else? | |
| Andrea-Rachel P: No, I’m from Brooklyn, New York. Shout out to Brooklyn. I love Brooklyn. It’s home. I have lived other places. I’ve lived in Oxford County, Pennsylvania. I’ve lived in Manhattan. I’ve lived all over, but Brooklyn is home and that’s where I’m from. That’s where the heart is, and that’s where the film is based and shot in. | |
| What’s next for you? | |
| Andrea-Rachel P: Oh, I’ve got some exciting stuff lined up. I have something with HBO coming out that I’m really excited about. Also excited about this web series that I have coming out called Lies and Loyalty. I have a short film coming out called Trending. |
C. Fitz and Jewel Thais-Williams talk Jewel’s Catch One:
| What inspired you to make it? | |
| C. Fitz: I met Jewel in 2010, and I was hired to make a two, three minute piece on her a charity she was winning an award, and I said to myself and I said to her, “You have to have a documentary on your life.” That started the journey, but once I started to do research on all that she’s built and all that she’s changed for us that follow her, she’s a pioneer and we stand on her shoulders. It had to me done. It had to be done. I’m just lucky to be that one that got to do it. | |
| What was the greatest challenge of putting the film together? | |
| C. Fitz: Trying to find old photographs. She endured a fire, arson, and a lot of photographs were destroyed as well as her club was very private. It has a visual style to it to meld it all together, but it was definitely probably that. | |
| Speak about why you first decided to open your club. | |
| Jewel: We would have a safe place for African American gays and lesbians and other people that couldn’t go to clubs at that time because of their color or sex or whatever. It was about having a safe place for folks to come in and see people that acted and looked like them, dance and have a party and leave their cares outside. | |
| Speak about creating that space and what was that like for you to an important beacon in the community? | |
| Jewel: I was real happy and pleased to have been chosen and I thank God every morning to choosing me to do what I’ve been able to accomplish in this lifetime, and to have a job where you get paid for parking. That’s not bad either. |
