Local (Detroit) film heads to Sundance

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Local film heads to Sundance
'Bilal's Stand' gives metro Detroiters a voice, director says
BY JOHN MONAGHAN
FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER

Filmmaker and educator Sultan Sharrief was considering taking a corporate sales job in Texas when he got the call from Sundance. The prestigious film festival had chosen his freshman feature, "Bilal's Stand" (THREE STARS out of four stars), as one of only eight to be featured in its new NEXT category of inventive low-budget or no-budget American films. It will play five times at the festival, which begins today and runs through Jan. 31.


"Bilal's Stand," which screens in Ann Arbor later this month, is about an African-American and Muslim high school senior who works at his family's taxi stand in Detroit. Eventually, Bilal gets accepted by the University of Michigan but must be resourceful to earn the scholarship money he needs to attend.

The movie was made in metro Detroit with the help of Detroit-area high school students and the University of Michigan as part of a project called EFEX (Encouraging the Filmmaking Experience), which Sharrief cofounded. He began working on the film in 2005.

The 26-year-old filmmaker compares "Bilal's Stand" to Italian neorealist titles like "The Bicycle Thief" because of its use of nonprofessional actors in the locations where they live and work. He says realistic images of Detroit on film are in short supply, even with all the filmmaking occurring in and around the city over the past couple of years.

"The movie is about giving a voice to people who often go unheard," he says. "This could be students, Muslims, African Americans or just the city of Detroit in general. Too often, you're left at the mercy of someone else to define who you are."

The biggest challenge facing Sharrief right now is figuring out whom he can take to Sundance in Park City, Utah, this week. "You can imagine that everybody wants to go," he says. "Bilal's Stand" screens at 6 p.m. Jan. 31 at the Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty, Ann Arbor. 734-668-8397 or www.michtheater.org. $15.

http://www.freep.com/article/20100121/ENT01/1210336/1362/ENT/Local-film-heads-to-Sundance