[sws_blockquote align=”” alignment=”alignright” cite=”” quotestyles=”style03″] Everything that happened with my career just fell into place. It was the universe that made this movie happen. [/sws_blockquote]
In 2007, Jameel Saleem made the trek to LA from the East Coast with a mission to land some acting roles and develop a career as a Hollywood professional. But it was there that he experienced what Robert Townsend so comically portrayed in Hollywood Shuffle (1987) – the real-life plight of the black actor in Hollywood. Saleem got some auditions to play a gangster, a rapist, and a “ghost rapper” – literally a ghost who raps. His friend Kimelia Weathers, who also journeyed to LA in 2007, shared a similar path. Yet, as a black woman, she received even fewer auditions and landed parts where she had little dimension and only one minor line of dialogue. They both realized that in order to achieve their dreams, they’d have to ‘do their own thing.’ So they did just that and started a web series called Exit Strategy, shooting 7 episodes of over a span of 3 years.
The feature-length project, which evolved from the web series, was put into motion when Philly Hot 107.9 on-air radio DJ Quincy “QDeezy” Harris recognized Saleem from the webisode and enlisted L.A.’s Power 106FM radio personality Big Boy and Ask Around Entertainment production company owner Kellie Maltagliati to produce the film.
Shot in 14 days and made for less than $100,000, Exit Strategy follows the relationship between James (Jameel Saleem) and his girlfriend Kim (Kimelia Weathers).
[sws_blue_box box_size=”555″]James gets evicted from his apartment and moves in with his girlfriend of three months Kim and quickly discovers she’s everything he never wanted in a woman. He enlists best friends Carville (Quincy “QDeezy” Harris) and Leona (Noelle Balfour), plus high-schooler Scoop (NICK SINISE) and strangers Big Boy and Kevin Hart to find a relationship exit strategy; but for Kim, breaking up just isn’t an option.[/sws_blue_box]
Directed by Michael Whitton, Exit Strategy seeks to provide a much-need diversion from the commonplace films that Hollywood releases for African American audiences – which are generally films loaded with stereotypes or historical achievement films (the first-black-man/woman/team-to-accomplish-insert-accomplishment-here).
Writer/actor Jameel Saleem and actor/radio personality Quincy “QDeezy” Harris urge up and coming filmmakers to ‘do their own thing’ no matter how much money they have or how many resources they currently have at their disposal.
As a motivating factor for his writing and acting pursuits, Saleem cites a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. as a source of inspiration to him:
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase; you just have to see the first step.”
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Trailer |http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6oDW6Ew5Wo
On Set |http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKREQ2dFP5g
Promo |http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNY_aXP57zU&feature=related
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[sws_red_box box_size=”555″]The independent urban-comedy, Exit Strategy, premieres this weekend in the Philadelphia area at AMC Franklin Mills and AMC Loews in Cherry Hill, NJ and will expand to more cities in the following weeks.[/sws_red_box]
