SYNOPSIS - RiseUp RiseUpEPK-B.pdf · RiseUp is a journey into the heart of Jamaica - the island that gave birth to the worldwide cultural phenomenon of Reggae. In a society where

SYNOPSIS

RiseUp is a journey into the heart of Jamaica - the island that gave birth to the worldwide cultural phenomenon of Reggae. In a society where talent abounds and opportunity is scarce, three distinct and courageous artists fight to rise up from obscurity and write themselves into the pages of history.

With music and appearances by legends Lee “Scratch” Perry, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, and a slew of soon-to-be superstars, RiseUp follows artists in the dangerous streets, back alleys and crowded dancehalls of Kingston and the countryside. These artists demonstrate the raw power of hope and courage in a land which is largely unseen, but certainly not unsung.

Welcome to the Jamaican underground music scene.

RISEUP ENTERTAINMENT LLC | 449 S. BEVERLY DRIVE, SUITE 214, BEVERLY HILLS CA 90212 | 310-553-5866 | WWW.RISEUPMOVIE.COM

LONG SYNOPSIS

On an island where reggae is considered the voice of the people and an outlet for survival, RiseUp follows three aspiring artists who seek to“rise up” from obscurity for their chance at success. Thisdocumentary is unlike any documentary about Jamaica as it takes theviewer off the beaten path far from any tourist attractions and sandybeaches yet still able to capture the beauty and magic that the Iriehas to offer. From the deep countryside to the whirlwind ghettos ofKingston, no matter where you are, the fi lm makes it evident thatreggae music is the heartbeat of the culture.

In a society where talent abounds and opportunity is scarce, RiseUpfollows the very different lives of three artists struggling in theirown unique way for their big break at stardom. Turbulence, theconscious ghetto youth with enough determination to move mountains;Ice, the young faux-gangster dancehall artist from the upper class;and Kemoy, the beautifully innocent country girl who barely realizesher amazing vocal gifts ... all come together as the fi lm seamlesslyinterweaves their lives behind the backdrop of the bustlingunderground reggae scene of Jamaica. Five years in the making, RiseUpis able to capture the pure artistry and creativity of these threemusician in raw form while at the same time, able to bring the viewerinto their personal lives, inside their most private moments, as theystruggle to fi nd their voice and discover their ability to overcomelife’s obstacles.

Beyond these three emerging talents, RiseUp is the ultimate tour guideto Jamaica’s underground music community. The documentary goes farbeyond the widely known Bob Marley and pop-reggae scene and insteadleads the viewers to the island’s dangerous streets, back alleys andpulsing dancehalls, capturing raw talent at its best and revealinginto the roots of a world phenomena with all the passion and honesty acamera can capture. With music and appearances by legends Lee“Scratch” Perry, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, and a slew ofsoon-to-be superstars, RiseUp is a testimonial of what hope andcourage can achieve in a land which is largely unseen, but certainlynot unsung.

Among a number of prominent recognitions, RiseUp has already won theMusic Documentary Award at AFI/Discovery Channel’s prestigiousSILVERDOCS festival in Washington, D.C. and has traveled extensivelyto various fi lm festivals and arts institutions throughout NorthAmerica and Europe.


THe DIReCTOR RISEUP is luciano Blotta’s fi rst feature documentary, shot over several years in the island of Jamaica. Before RISEUP he directed the controversial documentary short NUTRITION FACTS (2002), which premiered at Slamdance Film Festival and Argentina’s BAFICI International fi lm festival, to rave reviews. While not directing documentary projects, Luciano pours his passion into cinematography, photographing commercials, music videos and feature fi lms.

A native of Argentina, Luciano received a scholarship to study fi lm production at the University of Miami, where his short documentary fi lm MY GRANDFATHER THE PAINTER earned the respect of his mentors, who encouraged him to move to Los Angeles. Having spent the last 8 years there, Luciano quickly moved up the ranks of the biggest Hollywood fi lm sets, operating video systems for celebrated directors such as Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Steven Soderbergh and John Woo.

It is his work on RISEUP that refl ects Luciano’s passion for beauty and the celebration of life, as seen thru the lives of other passionate artists as himself.

FilMogRapHY

-RISEUP (2010)-THE EVIL WOODS (2007) - Cinematographer-NUTRITION FACTS (2002)-DYING FOR A DONUT (2003) - Cinematographer-MY GRANDFATHER THE PAINTER (1995)

THe PRODUCeR

darrin Holender began his entertainment career early on in his youth under the tutelage of his father, a fi lm and television licensing veteran. After ten years of university, graduate school and work experience in both the U.S. and overseas, he settled with his family in hometown Los Angeles where he is a practicing entertainment attorney and a principal of two diverse multi-media companies. Two fi lms produced by Holender are set to be released this year, including the festival-honored documentary RiseUp and the upcoming Summit Entertainment feature fi lm release, Sorority Row.

FilMogRapHY

-RISEUP (2010)-SORORITY ROW (2009)

CAST memBeR BIOS

KeMoY Reid“I have music within me so there will always be music for me.”We met Kemoy by accident at an obscure street dance called “Ghetto Sting.” Weeks earlier, we were fi lming artists at Reggae Sumfest in Montego Bay when an ambitious promoter going by the name of “Brandish”, approached us. He had been watching us fi lm artists and was interested in what we were doing and in showing us what his community had to offer, so he persuaded us to come fi lm his upcoming show in the country parish of Clarendon. So, we set out in the middle of the night to “link-up” with this promoter, somewhere in the countryside. Once we found him, he escorted us into his community and more importantly, into the dance where the fate of this project would change forever, Ghetto Sting, the dance were we found our jewel, Kemoy. As the show went on, we noticed a gorgeous young girl serving drinks at the bar, under a big tree. Her name was Kemoy and she said she could sing. However, she never went on stage so we decided to come back a few days later and the rest is history. We are proud to introduce Kemoy to the world.

tuRBulence“I could’ve been one of the most Notorious...I got saved by the King.”Born in Kingston, St. Andrew on 11th January 1980, Turbulence is the youngest of three children. Turbulence started his career while still at school, honing his skills both on the desktop and behind the auditorium. Growing up he was inspired by the voices of Bob Marley, Garnet Silk, Peter Tosh, Eddie Fitzroy and Jacob Miller. He got his name from an elder Rasta man who saw him “mash up” a show under the name “Double Trouble”. The elder told him to change his name to Turbulence and he has never looked back. A member of the Higher Trod Family, Turbulence has seen wide exposure as the opening act for Sizzla in North America, Europe and the Caribbean. The overarching message of Turbulence’s music is that there should be no racial discrimination. The strong must help the weak, trust in Rastafari, and burn out weakness. Turbulence and his message are being well received as his songs Think of Peace, Give Her What She Want, I Love You So, Yea Yea Yea, and Free and Hype are receiving a heavy rotation on the radio. Along with his many stage show performances, Turbulence has become one of the hottest Jamaican performers in recent memory.

We met Turbulence at his home town in Hungry Town, Kingston. It was a sunny day and as usual, and Turbulence was killing time by singing songs outside his mother’s yard with his crew, The Higher Trod Family. Though he was known in the dancehalls, Turbulence was still trying to get his name out to the popular audience in Jamaica. He was still underground, but his talent was undeniable and it would only get better for him in the upcoming years. His rise to fame culminated with his hit single Notorious, which sizzled on the airwaves when its music video was fi rst released in December of 2004 in Jamaica. The song subsequently rose to #1 on charts around the world.

CAST memBeR BIOS

MicHael andRew (ice anastacia)“We have that Chemistry that can be stopped.We are going to the top, top, top.”Michael Andrew can remember singing into a hairbrush with his mother at age 3. As destiny would have it, at age 11 he crossed paths with current super-producer Jeremy Harding. After hearing Michael deejay, Harding (who would later become a key driving force behind Sean Paul’s rise to stardom) carried young Michael to his studio on Jack’s Hill to voice his very fi rst demo. Now, in his early 20’s, having returned to his native Jamaica after living in South Florida, Michael Andrew has quickly gained popularity with young producers on the island. He is known well for his truly unique musical sound which he has coined the New Soul Reggae: a style that fuses Jamaican lover’s rock, roots reggae and sing-jay with international grooves of rhythm and blues and pop music. Through his music Michael Andrew speaks to the reality of the Jamaican context, refl ecting the constant battle between the good and bad realities of our culture, communicated through hypnotic vocal melodies. “In solitude I found that music lives in me and I’m here to give music to the people”.

We met Michael Andrew Lewis, also known as Ice Anastacia, at a private home, in Kingston. Like many others, he was interested in what we were doing and was quick to offer us a taste of his music. So he pulled out a boombox and started singing tunes for us to some of his “riddims”. Charismatic, confi dent and talented, he was a rare fi nd. In years of exploration we never met another artist like ICE. He leads the uptown movement of the music, as opposed to the roots Reggae music that came out of the downtown areas of Kingston. During most of the period fi lming RiseUp, Ice was doing music with two collegues: Franz Capone and YGO, with whom he performed on the biggest reggae show on earth.


DIReCTOR’S STATemeNT

When I set out to make this fi lm, I didn’t know much about reggae or Jamaican culture, yet my passion for fi lmmaking guided me into this world which started growing on me, infectiously, until I was completely in love and fascinated by it. Through the 5 years and life-changing epic personal journey that was making this fi lm, Jamaica became my home and its people my own. There were rites of passage and I had some of the most fulfi lling moments of my life, as well as some of the most challenging. And of course, I am now a big reggae fan. Reggae is, in a way, like medicine.

I hope the fi lm will bring smiles to the people of Jamaica, I hope the culture opens peoples’ eyes around the world and touches them as it did me. But above all, I hope it brings inspiration and hope to anybody who sees it, because to me, inspiration is what dreams are made of.

-Luciano Blotta.

THe CAST

THe CReW

KeMoY ReidtuRBulence

MicHael andRew (ice anastacia)SPECIAL APPEARANCES BY:

slY dunBaRRoBBie sHaKespeaRe

AND lee “scRatcH” peRRY.

Director proDucerS

eXecutiVe proDuceraSSociate proDucer

eDitorS

cineMatographeraSSiStant proDucer

poSt proDuction SuperViSorS

SounD DeSigner/MiXer

LUCIANO BLOTTALUCIANO BLOTTADARRIN HOLENDERMARK HARTCARLO LESSLUCIANO BLOTTACATALINA RINCONLUCIANO BLOTTASHANNON HARTJAMIE TOSITCHAVDAR GEORGIEVJAVIER CORTES


PRODUCTION STILLS


PRODUCTION STILLS (CONTINUeD)


PRODUCTION NOTeS

RiseupStories from Jamaica’s Music Underground

Directed by Luciano Blotta88 min.[16:9]

[HD Widescreen]Language: English/Patois

Subtitled: English

You’ve heard of Bob Marley and Jamaica,but you’ve never experienced anything like this.

DirecteD anD photographeD by Luciano bLotta

2008-2010 Festivals and awaRds-Winner, aFi / DiScoVery SiLVerDocS – best Music Documentary award -official Selection, iDFa aMSterDaM – top ten audience award-Official Selection, HotDocs Toronto & Docs For Schools Program-True False Film Fest: Sneak Preview-Official Selection, DocAviv-Closing Night Film, Lemesos Doc fest, Cyprus-Official Selection, Camden International Film Festival-Official Selection, Bahamas International Film Festival-Official Selection, RIDM Film festival, Montreal-Official Selection, Cinema St. Louis-Official Selection, KAPU Film Festival, Austria-Official Selection, Toronto Urban Film Festival-Official Selection, Salem Film Fest

non Festival scReenings-Film Society of Lincoln Center – New York City. -MOCA, Museum Of Contemporary Art - Jacksonville Fl-Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, - Hartford, Connecticut -Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts – Miami, Florida -Australian Center For The Moving Image – Melbourne, Australia -Cinema Politica - Montreal, Canada.

television BRoadcasts-BBC Storyville - London UK.

www.riseupmovie.com


1. How did this film come about and how did you know it was the project for you?A jamaican friend from college told me to come down to Jamaica with my camera and do a film about a small fishing village that he knew about. I hadn’t seen my friend in years and I had never been to Jamaica, so I went. It wasn’t long until I was invited to an underground sound system clash, and the rest is history, as the fish were history. The amount of undiscovered talent bubbling up from every street corner of Jamaica inspired me to do something about it and help them be seen and recognized. So RiseUp was born.

3. what were some of the biggest challenges/surprises?The biggest challenge was learning the hard way that the slogan “Jamaica No Problem” is a marketing tool for tourists and that everything is hard to do in Jamaica. Getting robbed and almost killed wasn’t easy either, but now I see that it was a right of passage after which this culture became like my own.

4. what did you learn in the process of making this film?-I learned that the best stories and characters are already out there in the real world. Documentary is a fascinating and rewarding medium beyond anything else. It’s a privilege and a thrill every time. I think it is for the filmmaker what theater is for the actor. No safety nets and you only get one shot.

7. why did you become a filmmaker?I come from a family of visual artists, my grandfather was the first artist to make an animated feature film for theatrical release in Argentina and he was also a renowned painter. So, as I remember it, I found an old super-8 camera in my house and being a big fan of horror movies, decided to shoot my first vampire movie with it. I was 8 years old and I had found my way to paint. I also remember becoming a fan of The Indiana Jones films and deciding I wanted to be a filmmaker. Little did I know that my name would someday go up in the credits of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I could’ve never dreamt that, but dreams do come true.

8-From what or whom do you derive your greatest inspiration? From life’s beauty and magic, when I have time to see it. Otherwise, from artists like Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Andrew Wyeth who had more time and talent than me to see it .

12. what has been the most unexpected thing to happen since taking the film on the festival circuit?Being the top ten audience favorite movie at IDFA last november was the first big surprise, the film had just come out of the oven weeks before that and I was presenting 5 years of my life and my work to the public. We hadn’t really done any preview screenings or anything, so I was literally jumping of a cliff, into the abyss. It was a moment I will never forget, almost like your first kiss, there will never be anything quite like it.

Q&A WITH DIReCTOR LUCIANO BLOTTA


Hi Luciano,

I saw RiseUp at hot docs festival 2 weeks ago and just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed it. Congratulations, man, great movie! We appreciated how you took a street/bush culture which is normally viewed as crude and violence prone and treated it with respect and sensitivity. Happy to see Turbulence enjoy such success but truly heartbreaking about Kemoy. She’s a rare natural talent but it’s going to be rough for her. Thanks for telling her story, cause you don’t often get to see that sort of thing. I hope millions see this movie. We know how hard it is to get a movie made. Stay strong. Your brother in the struggle.

-terry swinton author lazarus and the Hurricane, the Freeing of Rubin Hurricane carter, basis for the denzel washington movie, Hurricane

“RiseUp” has so many elements that will excite and inspire student and faculty audiences. First and foremost, Director/Cinematographer Luciano Blotta brings us into the everyday life of the Jamaican music underground and underclass, not to exploit but to share in their experience. His camera is never intrusive. In fact, he is a constructive force in the lives of the musicians he follows. If I were to chose a few key words for the film they’d be: authentic, soulful, energetic, inventive. Students will come away with an appreciation not only of the music, but of the various film crafts Blotta mastered in delivering this fine film.”

-amanda pope usc Film professor

WHAT PeOPLe ARe SAYING ABOUT RISeUP:

Fan MaiL:


While conducting research at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), I had the opportunity to attend a premier screening of Rise Up. As a visual anthropologist and professional filmmaker, I was struck by the unique value of this film as a case study in contemporary documentary modes. Stylistically distinct, Rise Up stands in stark contrast to a reductive filmic tradition of exoticism, Orientalism, and tropicalization. Pioneering filmmaker John Grierson envisioned documentary film as the “creative treatment of actuality”. In the true spirit of the poetic Griersonian mode, Rise Up strategically weaves “actuality”, artistic metaphor, and subjective lived-body experience, effectively balancing entertainment with a meaningful exploration of profound socio-cultural themes. In particular, the film highlights important issues of post-Colonialism, commodification of culture, and the formulation of personal and cultural identity. Refreshingly abstracted from political agenda and representational cliché, Rise Up presents a fresh and innovative reimagining of Jamaica – a unique cinematic experience of harsh beauty, raw talent, and (most of all) inspirational hope.

Particularly interesting as an example of creative ethnography, Rise Up deals effectively with the difficult charge of expressing culture through visual (re)presentation. Through intimate character portraits and the use of music as a driving narrative element, Rise Up engages the complex reality of contemporary life in Jamaica. As an extension of voice and agency, the powerful lyrics, distinctive sounds, and iconic power of Jamaican music culminate as a manifest expression of the hopes, dreams, fears, joys, and sorrows of the Jamaican people. Reflective and reflexive, the music speaks simultaneously to and for the characters, situating Jamaican cultural identity within a framework of personal expression, social distinctiveness, and globalization. Accordingly, Rise Up returns the cinematic gaze, challenging the viewer to confront personal biases and preconceptions, and to transcend a silent history of cultivated cultural myth, through which fantastical notions of the Jamaican as exoticized “Other” are formulated and maintained.

Perhaps most notably, Rise Up speaks to the potential of documentary filmmakers to achieve large budget production values using small-scale, minimally invasive production techniques. Stunning cinematography, immersive sound design, and an engaging narrative structure evoke a profoundly moving cinematic encounter. This sense of powerful affective movement is achieved not through visual fetishism – that is, not through the trivial exploitation of the inherent aesthetic qualities of the content, characters, and environment – but through the carefully articulated artistic interpretation of the director, Luciano Blotta. At once beautiful and dangerous… celebratory and somber… inspirational and desperate… the cinematography, soundscape, and editing of Rise Up seamlessly evoke the paradox of daily life in Jamaica. In this sense, Rise Up aspires to Werner Herzog’s cinematic ideal of “ecstatic truth”. According to Herzog, “there’s something like a deeper truth. It exists in cinema, and I would call it the ecstatic truth. It is somehow the same thing like in poetry. When you read a great poem, you instantly would know in your heart, in your guts, that there is a deep inherent truth, an ecstatic truth... It has to do with our collective desires, our collective dreams…”. Unique and powerfully moving, Rise Up speaks to precisely these collective dreams and desires – to a deep “ecstatic truth”.

Sincerely,

cesare wrightPresidentKino-Eye Center for Visual Innovation

ACADemIC RevIeW


January 27, 2010 “RiseUp” Award-Winning Jamaican Feature Film - NEW YORK PREMIERE Although RiseUp is essentially a Jamaican documentary film that spotlights Reggae, it transcends genre and niche, seemlessly weaving three distinct stories into one inspiring feature film that is both dramatic and vibrantly explosive. Some are saying that RiseUp is like a Jamaican ‘Hoop Dreams’ and the best movie to come out of the Carribbean in many years- a potential Best Documentary nominee for the 2011 Academy Awards. The film features appearances and performances by both arising and legendary artists. Directed by Luciano Blotta, a native of Argentina, and produced by Darrin Holender (‘Sorority Row’), the film is the winner of the 2009 AFI/DISCOVERY SILVERDOCS Best Music Documentary Award, and was an audience favorite as an officially selected film at fifteen international film festivals, including IDFA Amsterdam and the Bahamas International Film Festival. Recently, RiseUp was chosen by the Lincoln Center’s Film Society to celebrate Black History Month this coming February on its way to a theatrical release in Jamaica and the U.S. in March. A one-hour version of the film will be broadcasted by BBC Storyville and many other television networks worldwide have ordered the film for their upcoming programming schedules. Not since the Harder They Come and Rockers has a reggae film been able to reach worldwide audiences like RiseUp. In a recent interview with Australian press, Blotta stated, “I saw how much talent there is [in Jamaica],how flamboyant, different and creative all these people were, and it really inspired me.” He is excited to finally share his six-year project with audiences in New York, that can, in his words, “appreciate this priceless portrayal of a uniquely proud country”. Having screened to full houses in nine countries since November, 2008, RiseUp has indeed connected to men and women, young and old, from all backgrounds. Audiences have been dancing, laughing and crying in their seats. Core reggae audiences and music doc fans have lauded the film for its authenticity and entertainment value, while general audiences have praised the film for its original storytelling, inspirational tone and beautiful images and sounds. Entertainment industry veterans who have viewed the film have commended Blotta’s efforts as an invaluable contribution to both the Jamaican culture as well as the medium of documentary cinema. Excited about the upcoming Lincoln Center screening, Holender stated, “New York will definitely connect with RiseUp the way other cities have- we just need to put it on the screen in the city and a RiseUp movement will organically develop from there.” The New York Premiere of “Rise Up” will be held at the Walter Reade Theatre at the Lincoln Center on Thursday, February 25th 2010. The event will include a reception, live performances and the screening of the film and will start at 6 pm followed by a session of Q & A with the director and producer. On Friday, February 26th, RiseUp will premiere in Hartford, Connecticut at the legendary Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

LATeST PReSS ReLeASe


Documents

SYNOPSIS - RiseUp RiseUpEPK-B.pdf · RiseUp is a journey into the heart of Jamaica - the island that gave birth to the worldwide cultural phenomenon of Reggae. In a society where