Story Avenue in the Soundview neighborhood of the Bronx is making its debut on the silver screen.
The movie “STORY AVE,” co-written and directed by Aristotle Torres, will begin a week of screenings in the Bronx at Concourse Multiplex Cinema starting Friday, Oct. 6.
It is a 95-minute coming-of-age tale about a high school teen grappling with the intense and lonely grief of losing his young brother, a deteriorating family dynamic, and the challenges of realizing his dreams.
With support from distributor Kino Lorber, production from Jamie Foxx, and award-winning recognition at the SXSW film festival this past spring, STORY AVE shines a new light on the Bronx.
STORY AVE is showing at Quad Cinema in Manhattan through Oct. 4, before a Thursday, Oct. 5, screening at the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem, and then a week of showings in the Bronx.
Kadir (Asante Blackk), a gifted graffiti and visual artist, is the protagonist of STORY AVE. While he isn’t based on anyone in particular, his story isn’t uncommon either. Kadir’s aspirations are met with mirage-like promises of camaraderie and a challenging path towards self-discovery.
But with the aid and unlikely mentorship of MTA employee Luís (Luís Guzman), Kadir begins to find his own artistic voice, style and the maturity required for personal growth.
In an exclusive interview with The Hunts Point Express/Mott Haven Herald, Torres underscored his profound sense of responsibility to authentically represent his community at its best and incorporate the Bronx into every aspect of production.
“We hired as many local restaurants for the catering, and all of our background characters were from the Bronx or New York,” he said. “We hired as many people walking by, like hey, you want to be in the movie? Whenever a kid walked by, I was like, what are you doing? Yo, come watch the monitor with me.”
Authenticity, he said, was a key quality he fought to include in his story. That meant being as deeply connected to the Bronx as possible.
“I just knew if I was 15, walking home and saw a movie set, saw someone that looked like me directing, running the set, that it might give me a vote of confidence.”
Torres is exactly the type of guy who can inspire that confidence. “I’ve always experimented with moving images. I started off managing J.Cole in college, and I’d shot all his first music videos – that was kind of my entryway into directing.”
Over time, Torres directed more music videos for a list of rap heavyweights including, Nas, Nelly, 2 Chainz, and Ludacris His credits include the video for Fabolous’ catchy radio hit, “You Be Killin ‘Em” and several campaigns for international brands like Pepsi.
“I’m from the Bronx, I’m from Soundview, went to 182, I went to 174, to Scanlon, – I had my first fight at Park Chester in front of Zabar’s. That’s just my upbringing,” he said. “I understood what it meant to be lonely, to want to aspire to something greater, but not knowing where to begin.”
Torres expressed his hope that audiences, and specifically those from the Bronx, would see themselves on the screen and take pride in their identity.
“Hopefully they know I thought about them every step of the way and cared about how they were portrayed and showcased,” Torres said.
The thoughtfulness of Torres’ approach, combined with the performances of Blackk, Guzman, and the ensemble, is a clear love letter to the Bronx.
During a Q&A session following Saturday night’s screening at Quad Cinema on West 13th Street, Guzman joined Torres to echo many of the same sentiments.
“You know what I really loved about this movie?” Guzman said, “ It wasn’t about 10 people getting shot in the Bronx, it wasn’t like they were going to jail or I was going to jail. You see the kind of human and spiritual evolution of two people. There was something that was so freaking grounded, something that I could relate to; something that I breathed, that I felt, stuff that I went through in my own personal life.”
Guzman, a Puerto Rico-born actor who has starred in dozens of films and TV shows over a 40-year career, concluded: “This movie, this script stole my heart. If this is the last movie I ever do, I feel complete.”
Audience members seemed to recognize themselves in the story – “I know that’s right,” one murmured – and voiced appreciation for the film’s beautiful visual style and for performances with emotional depth and complexity.
A father attending the screening with his daughter, an aspiring artist herself, said the film helped them understand that, like the fictional character Kadir and his creator Torres, she’d have a hard path ahead of her – but the path was navigable and she should be proud to tell her story.
Malcolm, a Black actor from the Bronx, shared his appreciation with Torres and the cast at a post-screening Q&A, citing small details that captured the Bronx’ nature, from the buildings, to patterns of sunlight, to nighttime train shots.
“To see the poetry that you brought back to the Bronx, yo, it’s just unreal, so thank you. I can’t thank you enough,” he exuded.
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