| When
Francisco, a teenager from Harlem, is admitted to an upstate boarding
school on scholarship, he is torn between his old life at home—his
loyal girlfriend and his jealous best friend—and his new environment.
But as Francisco tries to leave his troubles in Harlem behind, his
best friend puts his own life in danger as a loyalty test to Francisco,
and Francisco is forced to become the one thing in boarding school
that he resisted becoming in Harlem: a drug dealer.
Up With Me was produced as a collaboration between seven "at-risk" teenagers from Harlem, New York, and a film crew. The teenagers who star in this movie are all non-professional actors – we developed the screenplay with them in a writing workshop, basing some of the movie on their real lives. Then, they starred in the movie. When some of the teenagers were not acting in a particular scene, we taught them filmmaking skills by having them work on the crew. |
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