Ever since he left Penn, 2005 College graduate Noah Pink has been following his dreams and working as a filmmaker. In his newest film, Pink tracks the adventures of his characters in a pursuit to follow their own dreams and become American rap artists.
ZedCrew — Pink’s 44-minute movie about the plight of a group of Zambian musicians — will be shown at the Directors’ Fortnight at the 63rd Cannes Festival, held May 12-23.
The film is about a group of Zambian boys who realize that Lusaka does not provide what New York City does in terms of musical stardom. With dreams of reaching America and performing on MTV, the three take all possible measures.
ZedCrew is a dramatic film, but it also showcases the talent of Alvin Fungo — the leading actor and actual Zambian hip-hop artist. Pink discovered Fungo on MySpace, but all of the supporting actors were found on the streets.
“Noah called me and said that he was going to Zambia to do a work project for an NGO about trucking in Zambia,” Co-Producer and Director of Photography Christopher Porter said. “I said I’d love to go, and we should make our own film.”
Just before the two Canadians left for Zambia, Porter heard about a box found near their homes in Halifax Port, Nova Scotia that contained several African men trying to get to the United States without visas.
“It seemed like a really nice angle for the film,” Porter said. A great proportion of ZedCrew documents the boys’ journey, as they travel across the sea from Africa in a similar box.
Pink, who wrote the script almost entirely by himself, claimed that his interest in film and storytelling came from a seminar he took at Penn his freshman year.
“I went into Penn as a freshman thinking I would end up in Wharton,” he explained. “[Faculty Director of the Kelly Writers House] Al Filreis opened me up to the world of storytelling and literature and the arts in general — he made me switch directions.”
Pink was a history major ultimately and used monetary awards he won for his senior thesis to create his first short film after college. “From there I just kept going,” he said. “I’ve been doing film ever since graduating.”
But ZedCrew proved a new experience for both Pink and Porter: they worked with non-actors in main roles. Though Porter recalls days when they had to shoot scenes over and over again, he said the actors were very cooperative and had “a mass” of raw talent.
When the two producers came back to Canada, they had many hard drives of open footage. Christopher Cooper, their fellow Canadian and creative producer and editor, helped them fine cut the film.
Cooper has cut films in the past for Paramount and Disney but was impressed by Pink’s “savvy and sharp” script writing and references.
This week Pink, Porter and even Fungo will travel to France to watch ZedCrew. No matter how the film does now, the cast and crew have found success.
ZedCrew is one of nine short films at the Directors’ Fortnight chosen from thousands of applicants. “That’s impressive alone,” Cooper said.
