Sprinter, the sophomore film from writer/director Storm Saulter, will have its festival premiere this week at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF) in Miami, Florida.
ABFF runs from today to June 19. Sprinter will be featured tomorrow and have its grand premiere the following day.
The coming-of-age story follows Akeem Sharp, a 17-year-old Rastafarian high school track-and-field student who has ambitions of qualifying for the national youth track team. He hopes to reunite with his mother, an illegal immigrant in the United States, by competing at the World Youth Championship.
Speaking at a media briefing at the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) headquarters in Kingston last Friday, Saulter said he wanted to tackle different issues with this film. Having made his directorial debut with Better Mus' Come (2010), he wanted to avoid stereotypical roles of the Jamaican “bad man” or poverty-stricken youth.
“It's about a boy trying to figure out who he is and what his motivation is and why he is even running in the first place,” Saulter told the Jamaica Observer. “I think the power of family and parents is super-important, and not having a parent around or a parental figure does impact kids. They are left to figure things out for themselves; inevitably you're gonna have a few misfires sometimes 'cause you need someone to guide you. That's not a rule against everything, but it's important.”
The 90-minute film was shot in Jamaica and Los Angeles over five weeks.
Social media star Dale Elliot (popularly known as Elli The Viner) makes his film debut as Sharp. Shantol J
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