You might feel a sense of shame watching Rotimi Rainwater’s “Lost in America,” an expansive documentary look at the issue of youth homelessness in a country where the problem seems unthinkable, and its victims are so often invisible. You are likely to ask yourself how many times you have passed by a homeless child and did not quite see them. The statistics are scary: According to a recent study, nearly 4.2 million kids live out on the streets due to heartbreaking reasons which Rainwater examines in his caring film, chronicling his six-year journey across 15 cities to grasp the breadth of the epidemic. One thing will be certain after tagging along that trip with him: Your eyesight will never skip over the homeless youth again.
That is mostly thanks to Rainwater’s approachable prose — not a feat of filmmaking perhaps, but an absorbing act of compassion nevertheless. As a person who...
That is mostly thanks to Rainwater’s approachable prose — not a feat of filmmaking perhaps, but an absorbing act of compassion nevertheless. As a person who...
- 2/28/2020
- by Tomris Laffly
- Variety Film + TV
Director Rotimi Rainwater’s “Lost in America” could have easily been another forlorn look at a pervasive tragedy: childhood homelessness. The documentary is often relentless in its intention to show you just how urgent this issue is. But ultimately, it offers you something many similar films don’t — hope.
It’s not an easy thing to accomplish. From its opening scenes, we meet one young person after the next sleeping on the ground, struggling to keep the few belongings they have safe from thieves, and just barely holding on to their wills to live. But they’re not just the faceless people pushed to the margins of society so many of us are used to noticing and swiftly walking past on the sidewalk. Rainwater introduces us to who they are and helps them tell their stories.
For instance, there’s 19-year-olds Makayla and Conner, a Seattle couple who have already...
It’s not an easy thing to accomplish. From its opening scenes, we meet one young person after the next sleeping on the ground, struggling to keep the few belongings they have safe from thieves, and just barely holding on to their wills to live. But they’re not just the faceless people pushed to the margins of society so many of us are used to noticing and swiftly walking past on the sidewalk. Rainwater introduces us to who they are and helps them tell their stories.
For instance, there’s 19-year-olds Makayla and Conner, a Seattle couple who have already...
- 2/26/2020
- by Candice Frederick
- The Wrap
In today’s film news roundup, Carey Mulligan books a Netflix role and “Shottas” and “Lost in America” find homes.
Casting
Carey Mulligan is in talks to join Ralph Fiennes in the Netflix period drama “The Dig,” set at the end of World War II.
Mulligan will portray a widow who believes her land contains buried riches, and Fiennes will portray a local archaeologist. Simon Stone is directing with Gabrielle Tana producing.
The project was previously set up for BBC Films with Nicole Kidman attached. In the past, Mulligan worked with Netflix on “Mudbound” and was nominated for an Academy Award for “An Education.” She also starred with Jake Gyllenhaal in the period drama “Wildlife” last year.
Acquisition
Samuel Goldwyn Films has bought worldwide rights to the action-drama “Shottas.”
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2002, then became a hit with audiences after an unfinished bootleg leaked...
Casting
Carey Mulligan is in talks to join Ralph Fiennes in the Netflix period drama “The Dig,” set at the end of World War II.
Mulligan will portray a widow who believes her land contains buried riches, and Fiennes will portray a local archaeologist. Simon Stone is directing with Gabrielle Tana producing.
The project was previously set up for BBC Films with Nicole Kidman attached. In the past, Mulligan worked with Netflix on “Mudbound” and was nominated for an Academy Award for “An Education.” She also starred with Jake Gyllenhaal in the period drama “Wildlife” last year.
Acquisition
Samuel Goldwyn Films has bought worldwide rights to the action-drama “Shottas.”
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2002, then became a hit with audiences after an unfinished bootleg leaked...
- 8/30/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Indican Pictures has acquired the North American distribution rights to the documentary Lost in America, executive produced by Rosario Dawson and Jewel. Directed by Rotimi Rainwater, the documentary feature is the first film to take a national look at the issue of youth homelessness in America, highlighting the main issues that surround it: sex trafficking, the failure of the foster care system, and the rampant rejection of Lgbtq youth. It is slated for a theatrical release in November.
Created by Village Entertainment, in association with Go Spectrum Studios, Chhibber Mann Productions, and Lynchpin Productions, Lost In America follows director Rainwater, a former homeless youth, on his six-year journey to shine a light on the issue of youth homelessness.
The film features interviews with more than 30 youth in 15 cities, as well as politicians and public figures including Tiffany Haddish, Halle Berry, Jon Bon Jovi, Miley Cyrus, Sanaa Lathan, Rebecca Gayheart-Dane. This film gives an unflinching,...
Created by Village Entertainment, in association with Go Spectrum Studios, Chhibber Mann Productions, and Lynchpin Productions, Lost In America follows director Rainwater, a former homeless youth, on his six-year journey to shine a light on the issue of youth homelessness.
The film features interviews with more than 30 youth in 15 cities, as well as politicians and public figures including Tiffany Haddish, Halle Berry, Jon Bon Jovi, Miley Cyrus, Sanaa Lathan, Rebecca Gayheart-Dane. This film gives an unflinching,...
- 8/29/2019
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Miley Cyrus has joined Russell Simmons as an executive producer of the upcoming documentary about homeless youth called Lost in America. She will also appear in the Rotimi Rainwater film alongside Halle Berry, Rosario Dawson, Jewel, Jon Bon Jovi, Sanaa Lathan, and Rebecca Gayheart-Dane. The film was directed by Rainwater, who himself was a former homeless youth. Rainwater told Deadline, “I never thought in my wildest dreams that we would get this many people to…...
- 10/25/2017
- Deadline
Exclusive: The homeless in America — 2 million of them are children. Now entertainment mogul Russell Simmons, Jon Bon Jovi and U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy are helping to shine a light on it through a new documentary called Lost In America. The film is directed by Rotimi Rainwater, a former homeless youth who spent three years traveling around the nation culling together stories from street kids who spoke to him in unbridled honesty. Simmons is the executive producer on Lost In…...
- 1/27/2017
- Deadline
Sugar is a touching story that gives viewers a glimpse into the growing homeless youth population in Venice Beach, but it’s still missing a few morsels.
Based on the nine months director Rotimi Rainwater spent on the streets, Sugar is the story of a young girl who took to the streets after losing her entire family in a car crash. On the streets, she and her outcast friends look out for one another and survive however they can. To them, living on the streets is a better option than the lives that they ran away from.
This film was made with a lot of heart. Shenae Grimes (Sugar), as well as the rest of the cast, took care and consideration into the roles that they were playing. Whether it be a drug addict or a thief, the film still showed the humanity behind it. Having said that, I would...
Based on the nine months director Rotimi Rainwater spent on the streets, Sugar is the story of a young girl who took to the streets after losing her entire family in a car crash. On the streets, she and her outcast friends look out for one another and survive however they can. To them, living on the streets is a better option than the lives that they ran away from.
This film was made with a lot of heart. Shenae Grimes (Sugar), as well as the rest of the cast, took care and consideration into the roles that they were playing. Whether it be a drug addict or a thief, the film still showed the humanity behind it. Having said that, I would...
- 12/4/2013
- by Melissa Howland
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Rotimi Rainwater's acclaimed indie drama Sugar hits La screens this Friday and Twitch is happy to present the new poster for the film based loosely on Rotimi's own real life story. Check all the details on the release plans and click the image below to see a larger version of the poster. Based on true events, Sugar is the story of a young girl coping with Ptsd on the streets of Venice, California. She survives on the fringes of society with her outcast friends, running from the torments of her past. Her new world begins to crumble when her uncle finds her through a social worker, forcing her to confront the demons she's been trying to escape for the past two years. Sugar is an all...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 11/18/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Errors Of The Human Body producer Cole Payne has launched the Los Angeles-based film and television production, distribution and talent management company.
Management executive Jeremy Loethen, current head of the talent management department for Payne’s Interactor Media, will be a partner in the new venture.
The company has signed Zackary Adler to direct Casual Encounters, which is set to commence shooting this month in Los Angeles and will centre on a man who is persuaded to start online dating after an embarrassing public break-up. Erik Steinmetz and Sebastian J Michael wrote the screenplay and Payne will produce.
Traverse will distribute its first film Sugar, a recent acquisition from the Cinema At The Edge film festival. Rotimi Rainwater wrote and directed and Ari Palitz and Erin Ward produced the tale of a homeless girl with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Comedy Central Workaholics co-creator Conner Pritchard and author of the three-part sci-fi book series The Rho Agenda Richard Phillips have joined...
Management executive Jeremy Loethen, current head of the talent management department for Payne’s Interactor Media, will be a partner in the new venture.
The company has signed Zackary Adler to direct Casual Encounters, which is set to commence shooting this month in Los Angeles and will centre on a man who is persuaded to start online dating after an embarrassing public break-up. Erik Steinmetz and Sebastian J Michael wrote the screenplay and Payne will produce.
Traverse will distribute its first film Sugar, a recent acquisition from the Cinema At The Edge film festival. Rotimi Rainwater wrote and directed and Ari Palitz and Erin Ward produced the tale of a homeless girl with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Comedy Central Workaholics co-creator Conner Pritchard and author of the three-part sci-fi book series The Rho Agenda Richard Phillips have joined...
- 6/6/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The Low Self-Esteem Of Lizzy Gillespe
Anne Hathaway is attached to star in Mindy Kaling's rom-com "The Low Self-Esteem of Lizzie Gillespie". Kaling co-wrote the script with Brent Forrester.
The story centers on a woman whose lack of self-worth has limited her choice in men to losers. When she is about to hit the bottom of the barrel, life takes an unexpected turn when she is pursued by the hottest guy ever. [Source: THR]
Conversations with Andy Warhol
Ty Simpkins ("Insidious"), David Mazouz ("Touch") and Willow Shields ("The Hunger Games") are all set to star in Rotimi Rainwater's period coming of age drama "Conversations With Andy" at Narrator Entertainment. Shooting kicks off next Spring.
Based on the true story of Palitz's childhood and set in 1984 New York, Simpkins plays a sixth-grader who befriends Andy Warhol at the same time that he learns his parents are discussing divorce. Shields plays his...
Anne Hathaway is attached to star in Mindy Kaling's rom-com "The Low Self-Esteem of Lizzie Gillespie". Kaling co-wrote the script with Brent Forrester.
The story centers on a woman whose lack of self-worth has limited her choice in men to losers. When she is about to hit the bottom of the barrel, life takes an unexpected turn when she is pursued by the hottest guy ever. [Source: THR]
Conversations with Andy Warhol
Ty Simpkins ("Insidious"), David Mazouz ("Touch") and Willow Shields ("The Hunger Games") are all set to star in Rotimi Rainwater's period coming of age drama "Conversations With Andy" at Narrator Entertainment. Shooting kicks off next Spring.
Based on the true story of Palitz's childhood and set in 1984 New York, Simpkins plays a sixth-grader who befriends Andy Warhol at the same time that he learns his parents are discussing divorce. Shields plays his...
- 10/9/2012
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
After scaring millions of viewers in the first season of American Horror Story, Evan Peters is returning to his spot on the big screen alongside Juno Temple for a coming-of-age drama. According to Deadline, the pair will be leading writer-director Tony Aloupis‘s feature debut, titled Truck Stop.
The ’70s-set drama “centers around an unlikely friendship between a high-schooler with cerebral palsy (Peters) and a troubled runaway with a dark past (Temple)”. The first-time director collaborated on Rotimi Rainwater‘s 2011 film, Sugar, of which he lent his writing talent to. The Hacienda Film Company’s Cory Neal and Andrew Mysko will produce alongside Aloupis Productions’ Joe Kreig.
To be honest, I’m not all that familiar with Temple‘s work — which is kind of sad on my part, mainly because she has been gaining celebrity status in the recent years with her work in The Three Musketeers, as well as the upcoming Linda Lovelace biopic,...
The ’70s-set drama “centers around an unlikely friendship between a high-schooler with cerebral palsy (Peters) and a troubled runaway with a dark past (Temple)”. The first-time director collaborated on Rotimi Rainwater‘s 2011 film, Sugar, of which he lent his writing talent to. The Hacienda Film Company’s Cory Neal and Andrew Mysko will produce alongside Aloupis Productions’ Joe Kreig.
To be honest, I’m not all that familiar with Temple‘s work — which is kind of sad on my part, mainly because she has been gaining celebrity status in the recent years with her work in The Three Musketeers, as well as the upcoming Linda Lovelace biopic,...
- 3/29/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Indie pic Sugar has a cast that's temptingly sweet: Shenae Grimes ("90210"), Marshall Allman ("True Blood"), Alex Meraz (Twilight), Even Ross ("90210") and Austin Williams (Phoebe in Wonderland). Grimes will play a woman suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and is living on the streets of Venice Beach. The story is loosely based on co-writer and director Rotimi Rainwater's childhood. Sugar starts filming in December.
Source: Variety...
Source: Variety...
- 11/15/2010
- by tara@kidspickflicks.com (Tara the Mom)
- kidspickflicks
Once again, you've got to hand it to most of the Twilight stars. Taylor Lautner might be doing everything he can to become the next Tom Cruise (without the couch hopping, we hope), but the rest are filling their non-Twilight time with a whole range of indie projects -- and Jackson Rathbone's is surely the most challenging to date. Variety reports that he will star in an indie drama called Truckstop with Jennifer Lawrence.
Written by Tony Aloupis (with revisions by Steve Grabowsky and director Rotimi Rainwater), the indie focuses on a man with cerebral palsy who works at a truck stop while caring for his dying father. There, he befriends "a troubled young prostitute," because in the land of movies, almost any woman, especially one at a truck stop, has to be a prostitute.
The use of the tired cliche aside, I'm eager to see what Rathbone can...
Written by Tony Aloupis (with revisions by Steve Grabowsky and director Rotimi Rainwater), the indie focuses on a man with cerebral palsy who works at a truck stop while caring for his dying father. There, he befriends "a troubled young prostitute," because in the land of movies, almost any woman, especially one at a truck stop, has to be a prostitute.
The use of the tired cliche aside, I'm eager to see what Rathbone can...
- 3/12/2010
- by Monika Bartyzel
- Cinematical
Jackson Rathbone ("Twilight," "The Last Airbender") and Jennifer Lawrence ("Winter's Bone) are will toppling the indie drama "Truckstop" says Variety.
The story follows a man with cerebral palsy who takes care of his dying father while working at truckstop. He soon becomes friends with a troubled young prostitute.
Tony Aloupis, Steve Grabowsky and Rotimi Rainwater penned the script. Rainwater will direct with filming kicking off in September.
Graham Taylor and Kevin Iwashina will produce.
The story follows a man with cerebral palsy who takes care of his dying father while working at truckstop. He soon becomes friends with a troubled young prostitute.
Tony Aloupis, Steve Grabowsky and Rotimi Rainwater penned the script. Rainwater will direct with filming kicking off in September.
Graham Taylor and Kevin Iwashina will produce.
- 3/12/2010
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
2010 is shaping up to be a good year for Jackson Rathbone. The actor, who is already set to reprise his role as Jasper Hale in the upcoming The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and will also appear as Sokka in The Last Airbender, has just signed onto to play the lead in Truckstop, the new movie from indie-filmmaker Rotimi Rainwater. Rainwater, who has made his mark with documentaries about the French Open at Roland Garros and spoken word poetry is shifting gears and delving into a fictional story about a man afflicted with cerebral palsy who takes care of his infirm father while working at a truckstop. There, he encounters a young prostitute (Jennifer Lawrence) and a relationship begins to develop between the two. After several years starring on The Bill Engvall Show, Lawrence is starting to make her mark as a dramatic actress. Look for her later in Winter’s Bone,...
- 3/12/2010
- by David Corbin
- Collider.com
Jackson Rathbone joins the cast of TruckstopVariety reports that Jackson Rathbone (The Last Airbender) and Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone) are going to star in the indie film Truckstop.
Director Rotimi Rainwater is set to start shooting this project in September.
Truckstop follows a man who has cerebral palsy. He takes care of his dying father as he works at a truckstop. While there he befriends a troubled young prostitute.
The script was written by Tony Aloupis. It was rewritten by Steve Grabowsky and Rainwater.
Director Rotimi Rainwater is set to start shooting this project in September.
Truckstop follows a man who has cerebral palsy. He takes care of his dying father as he works at a truckstop. While there he befriends a troubled young prostitute.
The script was written by Tony Aloupis. It was rewritten by Steve Grabowsky and Rainwater.
- 3/12/2010
- MovieWeb
CANNES -- Alpine Pictures is launching its domestic theatrical distribution arm in the fall with Box Office Prods.' Love Is the Drug, written by Wesley Strick, directed by Elliott Lester and starring Daryl Hannah. After Drug, Alpine will release Spit, a feature-length, spoken-word docu directed by Rotimi Rainwater that explores slam poetry. It also has acquired worldwide rights for The Trap, an action-thriller about hikers who stumble on a dead body and a bag full of cash.
- 5/24/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
CANNES -- Alpine Pictures is launching its domestic theatrical distribution arm in the fall with Box Office Prods.' Love Is the Drug, written by Wesley Strick, directed by Elliott Lester and starring Daryl Hannah. After Drug, Alpine will release Spit, a feature-length, spoken-word docu directed by Rotimi Rainwater that explores slam poetry. It also has acquired worldwide rights for The Trap, an action-thriller about hikers who stumble on a dead body and a bag full of cash.
- 5/24/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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