Silence
Directed by Directed by Mateen O. Kemet

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Review and Director Interview

Silence movie review
Unrated
Suggested ages-7th grade and up

Silence is a short film directed by Mateen O. Kemet. The film is about a young New York girl named Marquita Holloway. Marquita lives with her mother in an apartment and appears to live a normal life by all accounts. Early in the film she is seen at a clinic. When she is in the bathroom at home her mother her mother interrupts her and Marquita exits the bathroom leaving an important piece of paper on the floor. Marquita's mother reads the clinic note and the mother and daughter go back and forth about Marquita's pregnancy. It appears that mother and daughter are coming to grips with how to handle the situation when the mothers boyfriend comes home. He screams about the situation and convinces the young girl to disclose who the father is. It's hard to review this movie without spoiling it for the viewer, but the mother is forced to choose between her boyfriend and her daughter.

This is an important film and young girls should see it. Their is some brief nudity in the film. It's a very powerful film and sadly many young girls find themselves in Marquita's situation with a mother who trusts her boyfriend around her young daughter more than she should. The young actress in the film, Aura Vence does a wonderful job in the film, as does the rest of the small cast.

Interview with Scream director Mateen O. Kemet What inspired you to create a film about unplanned pregnancy? This is a very popular question for me, especially given the graphic nature of the film. Most people, in fact, are surprised that I'm a man when they meet meet me, they just assumed given the subject matter that it was made by a woman. I like that. At any rate, my inspiration... I have several. Personally, my mother lived a hard life which was wrought with abuse-- not sexual but abuse nevertheless, thus I have a heightened sensitivity to these types of issues, and I've strove all my life to be a non-abusive, secure man. I mention security because many times abuse germinates in the insecurity of the abuser. Additionally, I have been touched by this phenomenon through my relationships, dating women that have had this happen to them in some form. When two people get real close they divulge those secrets that have been bottled up for so long, and for me this was the secret that kept coming up. Maybe that says something about me ? I don't know. It just seemed odd to me that this was so common. Lastly, I work with children, grades 7-12 and I heard these stories far too often -- for girls AND Boys, which tended to lead to all type of dysfunction, plus sexuality and identity issues for them. Therefore, I wanted to make a statement about this phenomenon , not just a film, but a vicious scream, an homage even, yet create poetry to illuminate the subject while simultaneously showing people all throughout the world who carry this dark secret that they do not suffer alone, their ancestors walk with them -- nor should they walk in shame. These horrors happen. It's an unfortunate reality of life but they're the victims, it is not their fault. I wanted to speak for these unspoken people, hence the title Silence. Did people ever try to change your mind about making this film due to it’s subject matter? People never tried to change my mind per se, but there were some that questioned whether I could pull it off-- after all silence was a very ambitious project as a Masters thesis. Also, after I finished the film, 2/3 of my thesis committee tried to make me change the film. It was too ethereal for them and they wanted things wrapped up neatly. I'm attempting to challenge my audience, not think for them. I tried to articulate my methodologies and motives to them yet they would hear none of it. This seemed to be too much for them to bear and they refused to let me graduate. It became a bitter and personal fight, a sort of young Black man fighting the establishment battle. Why should I change it just to suit their affinities? It was my $30,000. Anyway the protracted battle ended when I won the Directors Guild of America's Student Filmmaker Award. I guess they could no longer contend that my film was "awful" ( in the words of one professor) while I was receiving one of the highest directorial awards available for the exact film that the extolled. They were embarrassed and did not want negative publicity. Anyway, I'm a better filmmaker because of that incident. It made me focus and really critique my film with a fine tooth comb to see if my critics had valid points as well as forcing me to really articulate my style. Another independent film, Just Another Girl on the IRT was based on unplanned pregnancy and was considered quite controversial when it was released. Have you ever seen this film? It was also based in New York. Yes I have seen this film. I saw it when it came out in theaters over 10 years ago (I think I'm one of the few). I loved it because although it was definitely low budget in terms of production value it got to the heart of the matter-- young people having to make choices, many times all alone, and not fully equipped to see the big picture. It was a powerful first film, unfortunately we have not seen anything else from the director Leslie Harris. In your production notes you mention difficulty in finding “the right” Marquita. What was it you were looking for in this character? I casted for six months, returning to NY from California twice to hold auditions. I believe this is the area where most new directors make their mistake they don't take their time to cast the right person for their film. Your movie is only as good as the actors. SO I took my time and scoured New York looking for the right girl. Aura Vence was actually in my second round of auditions and she was the best actor I had seen but I needed to have the right mix. I wanted a varied cast in terms of complexion to show "our" diversity. And once I chose her as the lead that dictated who I chose as the mother and boyfriend. I wanted to be very careful given the subject matter not to have light skinned women being terrorized by darkskin men. That is so stereotypical and imbedded in our collective psyche. Therefore once I chose "Marquita" I knew I had to have a darker complexioned mom and a mid complexioned or Lighter skinned male to change the dynamic. It worked out that the actors that I chose, Janell Sexton and Jay Ward were very good AND they fit those physical parameters. I also wanted to show different complexions because I was experimenting with the use of silver in the negative and wanted to see how "we" look using this cinematography technique. At any rate, I was blessed to have an amazing cast. I pushed them and they were for the most part, fearless. Aura is so tremendously talented, one scene when she is confronted in the bedroom she had to cry and she generated real tears the whole day. I mean she cried for something like 10 hours. The whole set was amazed. Actually, I chose her because of her acting ability but I wasn't sure she could play it young enough at first. When you see her head shots and in person she is a very mature 20 something year old woman. She's beautiful but she looks very grown. I just wasn't sure, but she allayed my fears the first time I saw her in her braids. I wanted someone extremely vulnerable, frail even, unknowingly sexy, and very contemplative. Someone who could carry emotion without saying a word. I needed her to have the ability to play these emotions but also be able to flip them back and forth AND BE EXTREMELY physical. Needless to say she passed my test. Will there be a sequel to the short? A sequel? No. However, I am developing Silence into a feature. The short is basically the first act. The rest of the film takes us on her journey to womanhood; we search for her father, get a clearer picture of the apparitions, we develop Sonia the mother, and her struggle (which is paramount to this story as well), we get into Angels head and see his insecurities and what would make him do these acts, and lastly it becomes an issue of the unborn child-- does she have it and become a 16yr old mother with all the data that says she will be in for a lifetime of poverty or does she have an abortion and take a life but save her own in some way? There are a lot of questions, real hard questions in this script and no easy answers. It will be challenging on many fronts, thematically, politically, and visually ( at least that is my intention). I expect it to be quite controversial when I'm done. It will be somewhat similar in controversy to Todd Solondz's latest film Palindromes- a wonderful film that asks questions on both sides of the abortion debate. It will also be a film very unique in it's approach to African spirituality. You were attending college in California during the time you shot the film. Why the importance to base the film in New York? Would the story not be applicable to an LA setting? (personally I think it’s great the way it is) Thank you for the compliment. Yes I was in Graduate School at Chapman University at the time ( see question 2). Actually, my Assistant Director tried to persuade me to make the film in LA, Watts actually. It certainly would have saved me a pretty penny, many headaches, and a bunch of time. I mean realistically, this film could take place anywhere, the story is so universal. However, I wanted to get into the issue of poverty as a sickness, not a blame game, but as a external virus that makes people do some of the most anti human actions imaginable for the sake of financial decisions. I recently saw a documentary on child prostitution in India called Born into Brothels which shows this very clearly. In that film a mother refuses to let her daughter go to school because the family needs her "income " as a prostitute. That is sick. And the sad reality is if they don't have her income then the family perishes. So there is a sacrifice that is made and the sacrifice is the welfare of the child-- and it becomes a vicious circle. I wanted to create that same environment in regard to the cyclical nature within silence . I wanted it gritty, rough, raw and "gully". So much so that it would make the audience uncomfortable. I am from the Bronx thus I knew the right places for this vibe. I also used color coding in my cinematography to help achieve the effect. Additionally, although California has it's share of roughness, there is no way I could substitute the train. The train is the first scene that started this project in my mind. It was the first dream I had on this film. So once I had the train scene clear in my minds eye, then I had to ask myself, WHO is she and WHY is she screaming? This led me to the development of the story. What advice would you give young women who are faced with unplanned pregnancies who have been abandoned by their families? I would implore them to tell someone immediately. Do not swallow this horror alone. Find someone to talk to-- a teacher or counselor, a friend, anyone but please don't just bottle it up and try to tough it out, because it will fester and crust over, eventually becoming emotionally infected and harm your whole person. Also just as importantly I would advise young mothers to be careful of letting men into their lives. Do not let every man you date come to your house or interact with your kids. Put some testers out, some feelers, wait a few months, see who he is before he immediately is around your kids. If I got that those 2 messages out to the world I would feel that I have definitely succeeded with my short . Where can people purchase your film and in what formats is it available? It is available through my website www.runawayfilmworx.com. Located under the project heading for the film, there is an order button which will take you to the order screen that you can print out and send in with a check or money order. I will soon have a PAYPAL account that will allow for credit card orders online. Lastly, to show my gratitude for your interest in my film, any of your readers that purchase my film will receive a 15% discount. Simply note that they found out about the film through Dorrie Wheeler. How about that? :-) As for formats, I only have VHS presently; however, DVD's will be mass produced by January, I hope.