Morris from America
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Morris from America |
| Original title | Morris from America |
| Country of production | Germany , USA |
| original language | German , English |
| Publishing year | 2016 |
| length | 91 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Chad Hartigan |
| script |
Sara Murphy , Chad Hartigan, Gabriele Simon |
| production |
Adele Romanski , Martin Heisler , Sara Murphy, Gabrielle Simon |
| music | Keegan DeWitt |
| camera | Sean McElwee |
| cut | Anne Fabini |
| occupation | |
| |
Morris from America is a German - American coming-of-age film by director Chad Hartigan , which premiered on January 22, 2016 at the Sundance Film Festival . There he found a US rental company with the A24 . The film was released in selected US cinemas on August 19, 2016 and in German cinemas on November 3, 2016.
action
The 13-year-old African American Morris Gentry and his widowed father Curtis move to picturesque Heidelberg , where no one else looks or speaks like them. Morris shares a common passion for hip hop with his father and dreams of becoming a great rapper . He does not feel comfortable in the new environment and initially completely misunderstood. While Curtis is working as a coach at a professional football club, Morris begins to take private German lessons at Inka. At her suggestion, he goes to a youth club. Here it is automatically assumed that the new student would like to play basketball as an African American, and when marijuana is found on the school grounds, the supervisor suspects Morris of having brought it.
The situation improves when Morris meets the pretty 15-year-old Katrin, who treats him better than most other Germans. She invites him to a party, where she exposes him. Nevertheless, Katrin likes Morris and he falls in love with her, even if he doesn't want to admit it. His father realizes that Morris is breaking free from him.
Katrin's friend Per, a student who is also a DJ, has a gig in Frankfurt , where the three of them go. Katrin arranged for Morris to present a rap interlude there. They spend the night with a friend, where Morris becomes jealous of Per. The next morning, Katrin and Per have already left, and Morris calls Inka with the request to pick him up. But Morris' father comes, who has been informed by Inka. On the drive, Curtis explains that he too did crazy things when he met Morris' future mother. He also tells him that he doesn't feel comfortable in Heidelberg either and that he applied in America and that the two of them must be a team.
production
Staff and cast
Chad Hartigan, who won the 2013 Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival for his film This Is Martin Bonner, directed and wrote the script .
The title-giving main role of Morris Gentry was cast with the young actor Markees Christmas . Craig Robinson plays his father Curtis Gentry in the film. The role of Morris' private German teacher Inka was given to Carla Juri , and that of his new girlfriend Katrin to Lina Keller .
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Filming and funding
The shooting took place in Heidelberg , Berlin , Großbeeren , Frankfurt am Main , Weinheim an der Bergstrasse and Nussloch and ended in August 2015. The film was shot in German and English as a German-American co-production with a mixed-language cast . Because the film is bilingual, it was mostly shown in cinemas with subtitles.
The film was funded by the MFG Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg , Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg , Hessische Filmförderung , Land Hessen , Deutscher Filmförderfonds and Rotor Film.
Film music
Keegan DeWitt created a film score that is adapted to the generation of young people in the film and includes a rap soundtrack. Director Chad Hartigan contributed some of the lyrics he wrote when he was the protagonist's age, Morris.
DeWitt mixed retro-sounding hip-hop with a selection of electronic dance music . Hartigan said: "The idea was always to choose music for the film that feels authentic, but doesn't distract from it." The score could be from today, but it could also come from the 90s, according to Hartigan, in this compilation however, it only exists in his film. Apart from the film, the soundtrack has so far only been made available in the form of a mixtape that DeWitt had put together and distributed free of charge for marketing purposes as part of the Sundance Film Festival.
The songs played in the film include Pauke by Roman Wilhelm, Up & Down by Hugo Manuel aka Chad Valley, Rebound by Eric Hirsch and Waiting Jazz by Tobias Scherer. The song Come Clean , which father Curtis tries to introduce to his son in the film, is a song that was released in 1993 by Jeru the Damaja , a rapper who enjoyed his success in the 1990s. Classical pieces such as Three Piano Pieces D 946 by Franz Schubert and the Sarabande from the Suite for Flute solo in A minor by Johann Sebastian Bach are also played in the film. Chad Hartigan contributed the song F *** in 'All the B **** s , which is sung by Markees Christmas in the film. DeWitt made the songs Clicks and Morris from America .
publication
The film premiered on January 22, 2016 at the Sundance Film Festival . The film was released in selected US cinemas on August 19, 2016. At the end of June and beginning of July 2016 the film was presented at the Munich Film Festival and from October 30, 2016 at the Tokyo International Film Festival . On November 2, 2016, the film was presented in the presence of director Chad Hartigan and actress Lina Keller in the Berlin Kulturbrauerei . The film was released in German cinemas on November 3, 2016. On November 4, 2016, the film was presented in the presence of Hartigan in Heidelberg, where the film was also largely shot. In June 2017 the film was shown as part of the German Children's Media Festival Goldener Spatz . In June 2018, the film was shown on German television for the first time on Das Erste.
reception
Age rating
In Germany the film is FSK 12. The reason for the release states: “The film deals with its topics [...] in a way that is suitable for young people and understandable for children from 12 years of age. In the boy's rap songs there is always crude sexualised language, which children from the age of 12 can assign to this particular musical genre and does not seem exemplary; in addition, the use of language is critically questioned by the father. "
Reviews
The film was able to convince 88 percent of the critics at Rotten Tomatoes (out of 78 critics in total, as of September 26, 2017). From the German Film and Media Review was Morris from America with the predicate particularly valuable provided. Above all, the acting performance of Markees Christmas was emphasized, as a weak point some breaks and inconsistencies in the script were identified. The jury's justification for the rating says: "'Morris from America' is a well-crafted, entertaining film that can also cast a spell over parents with its great images and pulsating energy."
Justin Chang of Variety describes the film as the work of a filmmaker who knows how to listen to his characters . Brian Moylan of The Guardian is particularly impressed by Markees Christmas ' acting performances, which show a remarkable range in his film debut . Dominick Suzsanne-Mayer highlights the achievements of Craig Robinson , who did the best work of his film career with the father figure .
Boyd van Hoeij of The Hollywood Reporter says that while the character-driven film ends up becoming increasingly clichéd, at this point he also manages to resist the temptation to go full throttle or get maudlin just to please the audience .
Barbara Schweizerhof from Berliner Morgenpost thinks that the film is particularly appealing because of the casual, alienating view from the outside on familiar things, an otherwise familiar Germany, and shows what it feels like to be a stranger. The film stays almost consistently close to its youthful protagonist Morris and shows the world from his perspective, whereby his skin color is only one reason for him to feel “different” as an American in Heidelberg, says Schweizerhof.
Fabian Wolff from the Tagesspiegel says that Hartigan captured some subtleties saturated with reality in his film. For example, he shows how openly white German young people dress up their racism with irony. His colleague Jan Freitag says of Christmas in the title role, the height of the fall between aspiration and reality, self-doubt and defiance fill it with an aura that spreads sparks without much noise and sums it up: “ Morris from America is the mature achievement of a boy without training or wisdom , but with the power of talent and ease. "
The film was selected for the 2017 German Film Prize .
Gross profit
The film, which opened in two cinemas in the USA on August 19, 2016, grossed 15,673 US dollars there on its first weekend and was ahead of films such as War Dogs and Kubo - The Brave Samurai in terms of average ticket sales or Ben Hur , which had also started this week, but had much higher production costs.
Awards (selection)
Gotham Independent Film Award 2016
- Nomination for Best Actor (Craig Robinson)
Independent Spirit Awards 2016
- Nomination for Best Supporting Actor ( Craig Robinson )
National Board of Review Awards 2016
- Inclusion in the Top 10 Independent Films
- Won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: US Dramatic ( Chad Hartigan )
- Award in the category Special Jury Award for Individual Performance ( Markees Christmas )
- Received the US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Individual Performance (Craig Robinson)
- Received the Amazon Studios Sundance Institute Producers Award
- Nomination for the Grand Jury Prize (Chad Hartigan)
Web links
- Morris from America in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Morris from America at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of Approval for Morris from America . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 160221 / K).
- ↑ Tatiana Siegel: Sundance: A24 Snaps Up Coming-of-Age Drama 'Morris From America' . In: Variety. January 24, 2016.
- ↑ Morris from America . In: crew-united.com , accessed on January 21, 2016.
- ^ Filmland Brandenburg 2015 . In: bbfc.de , accessed on January 15, 2017 (PDF; 477 kB)
- ↑ Morris from America: In the box ( Memento of the original from January 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: indifilm.de , August 11, 2015.
- ↑ Morris from America celebrates its world premiere at Sundance ( Memento of the original from January 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: film.mfg.de , December 3, 2015.
- ^ Keegan DeWitt Scoring 'Morris from America' . In: filmmusicreporter.com , December 5, 2015.
- ^ A b Brian Moylan: Morris From America review: struggles of a black teen in Germany . In: theguardian.com , January 24, 2016.
- ^ A b Justin Chang: Sundance Film Review: 'Morris From America' . In: Variety. 22nd January 2016.
- ↑ Chris O'Falt: 'Morris From America' Mixtape: '90s Hip Hop Meets EDM . In: indiewire.com , September 9, 2016.
- ↑ Morris from America ( Memento of the original from August 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: filmfest-muenchen.de , accessed on August 21, 2016.
- ^ Tokyo International Film Festival 2016 . In: tiff-jp.net , Retrieved October 25, 2016.
- ↑ Premiere Morris from America: Berlin ( Memento of the original from December 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: berlin.carpediem.cd , accessed on November 30, 2016.
- ↑ Anica Edinger: Heidelberg was the perfect location for filming: 'Morris from America' celebrates success in the USA . In: rnz.de , November 2, 2016.
- ↑ Program AZ ( Memento of the original dated August 11, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: goldenerspatz.de , accessed on May 2, 2017.
- ^ Reason for release for Morris from America In: Voluntary self-control of the film industry. Retrieved November 4, 2016.
- ^ Morris from America . In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
- ↑ Morris from America. Jury reasoning: Predicate particularly valuable . In: German film and media evaluation. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
- ↑ Dominick Suzsanne-Mayer: Sundance Film Review: Morris From America. A rap-minded coming-of-age story about being a stranger in a far-off land . In: consequenceofsound.net , January 24, 2016.
- ^ Boyd van Hoeij: 'Morris From America': Sundance Review . In: The Hollywood Reporter. January 23, 2016.
- ↑ Barbara Schweizerhof: Unfamiliar view of a familiar country: 'Morris from America' . In: Berliner Morgenpost. 3rd November 2016.
- ↑ Fabian Wolff: Young, black, outsider . In: Der Tagesspiegel. 4th November 2016.
- ↑ https://www.tagesspiegel.de/medien/kindercasting-in-film-und-serie-jugend-forsch/22727966.html
- ↑ The preselection 2017 ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: deutscher-filmpreis.de , accessed on February 17, 2017.
- ^ Weekend Box Office. August 19-21, 2016 . In: boxofficemojo.com , Retrieved August 23, 2016.
- Jump up ↑ Halle Kiefer: 'Manchester by the Sea', 'Moonlight' Top the Gotham Award Nominations, and List of Films You'll Probably Have in Your Oscar Pool . In: vulture.com , October 20, 2016.
- ^ Moonlight and American Honey lead Film Independent Spirit awards nominations . In: The Guardian. 22nd November 2016.
- ↑ Hilary Lewis: 'Manchester by the Sea' Named Best Film by National Board of Review . In: The Hollywood Reporter. 29th November 2016.
- ↑ 2016 Award Winners . In: sundance.org , accessed on January 31, 2016 (PDF; 427 kB)
- ↑ Dominic Patten, Patrick Hipes: Sundance Film Festival Awards: 'Birth Of A Nation' Pulls Off Double Win, Gassy 'Swiss Army Man' Takes Directing Prize . In: deadline.com , January 30, 2016.
- ^ Ross A. Lincoln: 'Morris From America' & 'Weiner', 'Life, Animated' Producers Win Sundance Institute Producer's Awards . In: deadline.com , January 24, 2016.
