Summertime

This is a film that doesn't sugar coat what it's like for most people who actually live in LA. In this movie, people take buses, wear second hand clothes, grab a burger, and tag buildings.

These poets write from their hearts and souls. They are young, They are proud and they are gifted. This is real life come to life in a movie that embraces the streets of LA... not with gangland warfare, not with drugs, but with real people who actually live there.

It is a joy to watch. You'll laugh, you'll cry and it'll leave you wanting more.

I was a bit apprehensive when I first started the movie. But the flow of the words, the scenes, the beauty of it all. It was seamless. I would recommend this movie time and time again for those looking for a truthful and sometimes brutal confrontation to the identity of LA and those who live in it.

Carlos López Estrada, director of "Summertme" (color and 95 minutes long) was filmed between July and August of 2019 but mostly in L. A.'s Korean Town area. It features great poetry written by emerging poets and inspired by Get Lit: Words Ignite, a literary and writing program for urban youth. Photographed with nice visuals from L. A.'s street murals plus a fantasy-like dance choreographed number amongst the "City of Angels" diverse landscape.

It brilliantly features young and emerging spoken word poets and musicians, discussing a range of issues from LGBTIA+, racism, urban gentrification, etc. With outstanding performances by emerging poets like Marquesha Babers amongst many others. Estrada's collaborative effort makes for a creative but cultural and an urban portrayal of "So-Cal" or "Angeleno" life.

I'm a movie fanatic but haven't been to the theater for a long time due to the Pandemic. Sometimes I will see a film only out of a sense of obligation, because I have film industry relatives and they often ask me what I thought of their work. When I don't like something, I just leave it alone and generally don't say a word. I'm a 70 yr old male, and certainly not the target for this films marketing campaign, so my comments here (straight from the heart) should be considered a bit unusual. Let me tell you right now that this was the most surprising film I've seen in many years. Surprising because I went into the theater not knowing what to expect and I came out with tears in my eyes.

Movies can do that to you. That's the joy of.film, and you learn by watching Summertime that it isn't by big budgets and Hollywood glam that you experience joy. It's by being enriched by the lives of others, and in this case, those lives are beautifully brought to the screen by the Director. I felt that the screen itself disappears in front of you -- something I'd never get off streaming TV -- and it was easy to imagine being brought into this magical picture postcard as a player yourself.

I felt like I was the old guy on the bus watching a gay young woman express herself in such a way that it actually did more for my understanding of that lifestyle than a lifetime of being completely outside her viewpoint,. And I was a silent observer of the pain that another poet expresses so emotionally that it rips my heart out, as I watch her berate her former boyfriend on his front stoop for the careless and incredibly insensitive way he treated her (wondering all the while if I've been guilty of that same behavior earlier in my life). And I sat right on that limo and listened with the other young poets as the limo driver looked into the stars and related his powerful and inspiring words in a poem that went from my ears to my heart, with no stop in between.

Hopeful? Hell yes. This film is as full of hope as you can find anywhere. The colors, the look, the words that are delivered . . . But most especially the feelings it brings out in the viewers. It can only be described as rare indeed. An unexpected delight

Finally, a movie that's not about white and privileged people trying to survive in L.A.