Feature documentary As We Speak from director J.M. Harper will have its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The film follows Bronx rap artist Kemba as he explores the growing weaponisation of rap lyrics in the United States criminal justice system and abroad – revealing how law enforcement has quietly used artistic creation as evidence in criminal cases for decades.
For the last 30 years, law enforcement has quietly used rap artist’s artistic creations as evidence in criminal cases with alarming efficacy. Prosecutors have asked jurors to suspend the distinction between author and narrator, reality and fiction, and to read lyrics as literal confessions of guilt. No other art form is exploited like this in court, and the tactic relies on racist stereotypes about rap music and the young men of colour who are its primary creators. In As We Speak, Kemba journeys through today’s meccas of hip-hop, building the case for black lyrics via intimate conversations with rap artists, academics, politicians, legal experts, and music industry executives.
Director J.M. Harper says of his film, “As a story about artists and rulebreakers, I felt that AS WE SPEAK needed to challenge the formal boundaries of documentary by mixing fact and fiction in the same style that hip-hop so artfully does. My idea was to make the audience fall in love with the main character, Kemba, for the majority of the film and then see if I could turn them against him in its final moments by using his own words against him. This is the exact methodology of prosecutors in the American criminal justice system – and for the last thirty years, they’ve practiced it with brutal efficiency to imprison hundreds, thousands (and perhaps tens of thousands) of black and Latino rap artists in courtrooms. Hopefully, the painstaking effort to craft a story that works both as art and issue film forces viewers to be complicit in the very real issue at hand – by enjoying the music that embodies the troubled past, present, and future of my people.”
As We Speak is a District 33, Park Pictures, and Strike Anywhere production. The film is produced by Sam Widdoes, Peter Cambor, Sam Bisbee, and JM Harper, and executive produced by Ryan Simon, Max Allman, Cody Ryder, Amanda Culkowski, and Bruce Gillmer. The film will premiere on Monday, January 22nd, at 3:30 pm at Library Centre Theatre in Park City, Utah. Its runtime is 95 minutes.
In addition to As We Speak, Park Pictures will have another film premiere at Sundance, Daughters, which is directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton.
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