- Title: VARIOUS: 'Yelling to the Sky' premieres in Berlin
- Date: 14th February 2011
- Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 12, 20119 (REUTERS) EXTERIOR BERLINALE PALACE (*** FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ***) 'YELLING TO THE SKY' ACTRESS GABOUREY SIDIBE ON THE RED CARPET SIDIBE POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS 'YELLING TO THE SKY' ACTRESS AND DIRECTOR ZOE KRAVITZ AND VICTORIA MAHONEY CAST AND DIRECTOR POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS MAHONEY BEING LIFTED UP BY MASKED MAN KRAVITZ POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS CAST AND DIRECTOR POSING WITH FESTIVAL DIRECTOR DIETER KOSSLICK (SOUNDBITE) (English) 'YELLING TO THE SKY' DIRECTOR VICTORIA MAHONEY, SAYING "It was a 70 per cent female crew. The DP, you know, it was great. But I don't think there is a difference in the male-female set. I think everyone is creative and professional and everyone has the same wish and agenda and everyone fighting for the same cause. I can't measure. I know it was very, very, very respectful." PHOTOGRAPHERS TAKING PICTURES (SOUNDBITE) (English) 'YELLING TO THE SKY' ACTRESS GABOUREY SIDIBE, SAYING "I think women have a sensitivity that men sometimes can lack and do it was a really amazing chance to get to work with so many women who are very sensitive about all aspects of movie making." ZOE KRAVITZ TALKING TO REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) 'YELLING TO THE SKY' ACTRESS ZOE KRAVITZ, SAYING: "It was amazing. We had a woman DP, a woman scriptie and pretty much everyone was a woman on the film. So it was great you know, really strong, powerful independent women making this film together and it was really great." KRAVITZ TALKING TO REPORTERS BERLINALE LOGO
- Embargoed: 1st March 2011 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Germany
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVA4LOESEPV55HCPBQOAUJ84036P
- Story Text: US director Victoria Mahoney brought her feature film debut to the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday (February 12).
'Yelling To The Sky' stars 23 year old Zoe Kravitz in her first leading role and Gabourey Sidibe of 'Precious' fame.
In 'Yelling To The Sky', Life is anything but sweet for 17-year-old Sweetness O'Hara (Zoe Kravitz). Her family life lacks warmth and, at school and on the street, she finds herself the target of naked aggression.
When a group of local kids demand she hands over her bike, Sweetness resists, but is beaten to the ground by the gang and their leader - Latonya (Gabourey Sidibe) - a notorious bruiser.
Luckily, Sweetness' older sister Ola appears on the scene and saves her from her predicament.
Sweetness won't be able to rely on Ola for much longer though. At home shortly afterwards, Sweetness' father Gordon, an aggressive drinker and her mother Lorene, have a fight.
Her mother leaves home and Ola decides to join her. From now on Sweetness must look after herself.
With the help of local celebrity Roland she manages to earn herself a bit of street credibility and, before long, two of her erstwhile rivals, Fatima and Jojo, become her allies.
With their support, she dares to attempt a head-on collision with Latonya - and succeeds in beating her rival to a pulp in front of the other pupils.
All at once, the pecking order is turned upside down. Sweetness becomes an increasingly loudmouthed bully.
Only when her mother and sister come back into the family fold, does Sweetness come to the realisation that she is now the author of the kind of aggression which used to make her own life a misery.
Working with a mainly female cast and crew Mahoney, Kravitz and Sidibe said was a different kind of movie making.
"It was a 70 per cent female crew...But I don't think there is a difference in the male-female set. I think everyone is creative and professional and everyone has the same wish and agenda and everyone fighting for the same cause. I can't measure. I know it was very, very, very respectful" said Mahoney. Sidibe added: "I think women have a sensitivity that men sometimes can lack and do it was a really amazing chance to get to work with so many women who are very sensitive about all aspects of movie making."
Mahoney said she did not have Kravitz in mind for the role at first, but that quickly changed in the casting process: "In this case a more seasoned actor may have intellectualised their performance or manufactured it. With her (Zoe Kravitz) it was raw, it was, what it was" said Mahoney. "And she is close to the anvil of what is occurring. So a lot of the issues the character is going through, she is near, they are hot button issues for her. So the proximity to each challenge is perfectly lit up, it's lit up within her, she wants the answer so it was like, I need to figure this out. So she was propelled by that." - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
