Ari, a homeless teen, conceals his identity as the graffiti artist "Shelter Boy".
The Other America is centered on Ari, a homeless urban teen. It is a coming of age story in the context of poverty and the failure of society to care for children.
Directed by
Eugene Martin
Written by
Eugene Martin
Produced by
Eugene Martin
Production Company
City Story Pictures
Cast
Tobias Segal …Ari
Irene Longshore …Cassie
Vicky Wang …Jackie
Crew
Tom Quinn …Cinematographer
Production Notes
I have aimed for a kind of filmmaking that is direct, intimate, and unmediated. In other words, I wanted to find a way to crash through the pretty staid conventions of filmmaking and get to this other place, although at times I had no real idea where I was going with it. But that got me excited, and I think the cast especially enjoyed our long sessions of screenings dailies and quickly assembled versions of scenes; then spending time to talk about it and coming up with a plan for each day. If we felt like we didn’t have anything to offer that day, we would just watch dailies and go home. Other days when we would hit a rhythm, we would keep filming into the evening.
Director's Statement
I began the process of writing the script for The Other America by observing and doing interviews of kids for a period of about 18 months in several large public high schools.I went in not really knowing what I was looking for or even what the story would be about. I had an idea that I wanted to make a film about a homeless kid that does grafitti, but keeps both of those issues a secret from everyone. I basically went to high school for periods of days and even a few weeks at a time so I could adjust to the rhythm of it. I also attended several meetings of a student union and watched the activist tapes they were making. I ended up creating a core of three characters to write about based on these interviews. As the project developed, I became less interested in filming scenes in a school, and for that matter, anything having to do with adult characters. It felt right to keep the story focused on just a few kids, in order to make it personal. If politics are personal at their heart, then the characters would have to tell the story in their own words, not mine. The crew was very small – at the most it was five people, and often it was just two or three. I decided to do most of the shooting myself after doing some tests with the new 24p Panasonic DVX100 camera. I took a few weeks to get comfortable with it, shooting scenes without actors. The idea of blending documentary and fiction techniques felt like the right call for telling this story authentically.
Filmmaker Biography
Martin is an award winning producer and director whose works have been screened internationally since 1988. Since 1990, he has written and directed 5 feature length films, including “Edge City” and “Diary of a City Priest”, which premiered as an “Official Selection” at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. He has received international awards and major grants for his work from the Independent Television Service (ITVS, a division of PBS), the Pew Charitable Trusts, the NEA, the Philadelphia Foundation and the Penna. Council on the Arts. His films have been sold to over 25 countries and screened in over 100 film festivals. “Diary of a City Priest” is currently airing on the BBC in the U.K. It was released on DVD in 2003 and is currently held in over 300 libraries across the United States as well as over 2000 video stores. It has been released internationally in 18 countries. His work has been theatrically released in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and New York at the major art houses in those markets.