Here’s your daily dose of an indie film in progress; at the end of the week, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favorite.
In the meantime: Is this a movie you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.
“Flex is Kings”
Tweetable Logline:
A documentary about the hopes and realities of the under-acknowledged and totally unfunded group of Brooklyn dancers behind “Flexing.”
Elevator Pitch:
Flex is Kings is a documentary about street dance set in East New York, a highly impoverished community in Brooklyn. Despite the high crime rates, a large and growing group of young men are resisting gang life to pioneer a form of narrative dance that tells the story of their streets. Their self organized dance battle competitions involve mock gun battles as well as dream-inspired flights of fancy. The film–shot over 2 years and over 300 hours of footage–tells the story of this art form—called “Flexing”– and focuses on some of its key personalities.
Production Team:
Director/Producer/Cinematographer: Deidre Schoo
Director/Producer/Cinematographer: Michael Beach Nichols
Editor: Christopher Kyle Walker
Additional Cinematography: Ryan Hancock
About the Project:
“While on an unrelated journalistic assignment in August 2008, I witnessed Saalim Randolph dancing at St. Nick’s Pub in Harlem. The dance I saw seemed fundamentally unique. I approached Saalim and found that his street name was Storyboard Professor and he was a celebrity among a vibrant, tight-knit community located in the poorer sections of Brooklyn. Storyboard offered to show me East New York and the variety of styles “flexing” comprises. I began to spend time shooting stills of the dance community and eventually teamed up with Mike and we began shooting live action.” — Deidre Schoo
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