AMERICAN RAPSTAR
A new scene of troubled, lo-fi young rappers have emerged from Trump’s America, utilizing the SoundCloud streaming platform to quickly become the most culturally disruptive force in hip hop, shocking the world with their rambunctious antics, prescription drug use, facial tattoos, and rebellious punk energy. What do these newly minted millionaire artists say about the state of youth culture today and the future of the music streaming economy? We examine the SoundCloud rap scene’s biggest stars from within the culture as well placing them in the broader musical context in an attempt to understand how we arrived here and where we are headed.
Section: 24 Beats Per Second
Category: Documentary Feature
Directed by: Justin StapleCast: Diego “Lil Xan” Leonas, Danielle “Bhad Bhabie” Bregoli, Omar “Smokepurpp” Pineiro, Jon Caramanica
Producers: Braxton Pope, Kerstin Emhoff
Cinematographer: Michael Pessah
Editor: Justin Staple
Music: Nathan Williams
Run Time: 79 minutes
Festival Screenings:
Sunday, March 15, 8:45pm, Premiere Screening (Alamo Ritz)
Monday, March 16, 5:45pm, Screening #2 (Alamo Lamar)
Wednesday, March 18, 2:30pm, Screening #3 (Alamo Ritz)
ECHOES OF THE INVISIBLE
“Echoes of the Invisible” interweaves a mosaic of profound quests: a blind man running alone from the lowest point in the western hemisphere to the highest mountain peak in the U.S.; artist Rachel Sussman’s struggles to photograph the oldest continuously living things on Earth; journalist Paul Salopek’s 21,000 mile walk retracing the migration route through which our ancestors first discovered the planet; astronomers and physicists attempting to see into the furthest depths of time; and monks probing the most extreme environment of all – the human heart. They discover, in their own way, something that transcends all that divides us in a world lost in the speed and noise of the digital age.
Section: Visions
Category: Documentary Feature
Directed, Edited and Cinematography by: Steve Elkins
Cast: Al Arnold, Rachel Sussman, Paul Salopek, Anil Ananthaswamy, Linda Lynch, Losang Samten
Producers: Scott Cronan, Jan Cieslikiewicz
Run Time: 106 mins
Festival Screenings:
Saturday, March 14, 2:00pm, World Premiere Screening (Alamo Lamar B)
Monday, March 16, 7:45pm, Public Screening #2 (Alamo Lamar C)
Friday, March 20, 8:45pm, Public Screening #3 (AFS Cinema)
