John Jacob Bench
Though the St. Louis Filmmakers’ Showcase doesn't generate the same buzz as the Saint Louis International Film Festival, it should. The guys at Cinema St. Louis have done a bang-up job at putting together a mini-fest that really shows off the wealth of local film talent. This year’s program includes some truly top-notch efforts, including Joe Leonard’s How I Got Lost (it’s a crime that it was not accepted to Sundance), and Shadowland, an impressively professional-looking vampire movie with a cool historical slant to it (note: I'll be blogging separately about this movie as we get closer to the SLFS screening date on July 24).
However, the local film that’s gotten some of the biggest buzz this year is Streetballers, which the synopsis describes as "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 collegiate level athletics." Shot in St. Louis, the film uses few professional actors; most of the cast is made up of locals and actual ball players, including the star of the film, ex-Mizzou & Vashon All-American basketball star Jimmy McKinney. Director Matt Krentz spent three years in my hometown of Salt Lake City, honing his filmmaking skills at the Sundance Filmmakers' Lab and writing the script for Streetballers. Then, he returned to St. Louis to shoot the script he'd written, with two childhood friends, Patrick Rooney and Craig Thomas, serving as co-producers.
The film, which premiered at the 2008 Hollywood Black Film Festival, is now hitting critical mass, but I'll let Matt, Patrick and Craig tell you about that. They wrote to ask us if we could get the word out, and we invited them to write a weekly diary of sorts leading up to the film's St. Louis premiere on August 21. (Tickets just went on sale today; buy 'em here.) Every Wednesday, tune in here to read the latest news, and to get sort of an inside take on what it's like to be scrapping it out in the indie film biz. --Stefene Russell
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The Streetballers Team offers its experiences in the ongoing “Path to Self-Distribution”
After three years of nonstop work in an effort to establish a following, strategy, and presence for Streetballers, the moment has finally arrived for us—the born and bred St. Louis Streetballers team (director Matthew Krentz, and co-producers Craig Thomas and Patrick Rooney). Recently, a phone rang and the voice on the other end announced that Streetballers had received the green light to open on August 21 at Wehrenberg’s Ronnie’s 20 Cine and Landmark’s Tivoli Theatre. After a lengthy exhale, we yelled a collective “Hell, yeah!” because it meant Streetballers was bouncing and dunking its way to an even bigger audience. As the news quickly traveled through cell phone calls and emails, joy, smiles, laughter (and a few curse words), spread through the hundreds of people who have worked on this film. In the words of Ice Cube: “Get us on the court and we’re trouble/last week messed around and scored a triple-double/freakin’ every way like MJ, we CAN believe today was a good day…”
It’s been six years since Matt Krentz wrote the first word for Streetballers. Then, a burgeoning vision became a screenplay; a production team; a film-in-production; a completed film; award-winner; sought-after Hollywood property; and finally a self-distributed film headed for major theatrical chains. Our time has come.
Streetballers is a 100 percent independent, organic, and homegrown movie, dripping in sweat equity, and shows what is possible when three individuals collaborate while still trusting their own individual creative power. We may not have known the hows and whys—and there were a million what-ifs—but we trusted that the answers would reveal themselves, and that things would work out. (It’s what they call “movie magic.”)
So, the movie magic continues: the new, unreleased Streetballers trailer, featuring Nelly and the St. Lunatics, is set to begin running this Friday, July 17th in all 90-plus Wehernberg Theaters (that means from Minnesota, through Iowa and down through Springfield, Mo.). We’ll just say we’re excited for you all to see the trailer—Nelly and the Lunatics are definitely ballin’ … they hit it hard! Staying with the soundtrack for a minute, we are also in the midst of planning the soundtrack release and listening party. Artists on the soundtrack include Murphy Lee, Chingy, STL’s hottest up-and-comer Yung Ro (currently at No. 7 on the Billboard charts), Prophet from the Nappy Roots, Genna representing the East Side, and the Stockholders (risin’ up from Memphis). We have some other recognizable names in the works—we will definitely keep you in the know on the soundtrack during these weekly blog posts.
We are very grateful for this opportunity to share the current status and continued progress of Streetballers with all of St. Louis. Without your interest and support this would not be possible. We hope you enjoy following our weekly blog posts as we approach the St. Louis theatrical premiere, and beyond. Following the St. Louis release, Streetballers will expand to Los Angeles in September. From there, it will go on to other major markets, utilizing the momentum that our strong St. Louis base will create.
In this new, exciting, and merging world of digital media and film distribution, we are hoping to create a new path for all filmmakers, as we are succeeding in self-distributing Streetballers in major theatrical chains. By the end of this week, the new website, www.streetballersthemovie.com, will be running the new trailer featuring Nelly & The St. Lunatics. You will also be able to find a link to buy advance theatre tickets and information regarding Soundtrack and DVD pre-sales. Now, on to August 2—let the ballin’ begin! —Matthew Krentz, Craig Thomas and Patrick Rooney
