News

Locally made film Streetballers premieres tonight in Saint Louis!

Streetballers is an Irish-Urban drama exploring the lives of two junior-college basketball players and their struggles within a divided city, broken homes and the demands of college-level athletics. Both players are drawn into an underground world of gambling and crime on the courts of the city’s tough Northside.

Constantly searching for sanity in the midst of alcoholism, racism and drugs, John Hogan (writer/director Matthew Scott Krentz) and Jacob Whitmore (Jimmy McKinney) find their release and therapy in competing on one of the most competitive street courts in the U.S. Both men spend an entire summer helping one another overcome adversity to reach their goals.

Their dedication and love for the game of basketball transcends the playground courts, reaching into their dysfunctional households, where the two boys play the constant role of the father figure. Together, John and Jacob...

Queen Latifah will serve as the honorary chair of 2008 Urbanworld Film Festival, which runs from Sept. 10-14 in New York City. She stars in "The Secret Life of Bees," which will play as the closing night film, followed by a Q&A with writer/director Gina Prince-Bythewood, Latifah and Sophie Okonedo.

The fest, which focusses on mainstream cinema by and about people of color, will screen 85 films at the AMC Loews 34th Street Theaters.

Receiving spotlight screenings are Gerald Barclay's "Wu: The Story of the Wu-Tang Clan" and Aaron Woodley's "Tennessee."

The narrative film line-up includes Brin Hill's "Ball Don't Lie"; Lance Hammer's "Ballast"; Daniel Williams' "Cigarettes for Breakfast"; Mark Harris' "I Used to Love Her"; Lindsey Christian's "Jazz in the Diamond District"; Robert Townsend's "Pantom Punch"; Mark Andrews "Seal Team"; Iris Huey's "Second Chance"; Kent Faulcon's "Sister's Keeper"; Leon Lozano...