“Sacred" is the story of a small-town couple torn apart by the bright lights of Hollywood. Pic from director Carl Seaton ("One Week") stars rapper Nas as a small-time music agent and Isaiah Washington as his high school friend and eventual competition. Nas' acting range is limited, but Kenny Thomas as the rapper's brother is superb.
By
Walter Dawkins
"Sacred" is the story of a small-town couple torn apart by the bright lights of Hollywood. Pic from director Carl Seaton ("One Week") stars rapper Nas as a small-time music agent and Isaiah Washington as his high school friend and eventual competition. Nas' acting range is limited, but Kenny Thomas as the rapper's brother is superb.
“Sacred” is the story of a small-town couple torn apart by the bright lights of Hollywood. Pic from director Carl Seaton (“One Week”) stars rapper Nas as a small-time music agent and Isaiah Washington as his high school friend and eventual competition. However, Nas’ acting range is limited and there is little spark between him and Elise Neal as his wife. Kenny Thomas as Nas’ brother is superb; pic’s best scene is when he confronts Nas over latter being “too busy” to visit their mother on her deathbed. Fueled by fans of the rapper, pic could make some noise on the indie circuit.
Isa (Nas) is a down-on-his luck music manager who moves with his loving wife, Gabrielle (Neal), from a small town to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune. A high school friend in the music agent business, Roland (Washington), ignores him, but Isa meets older exec Shep (Dan Martin), who gives him a chance, and he makes the most of it. However, the fast-rising Isa is seduced by the seedy side of Hollywood, as well as by an artist he manages (Chenoa Maxwell). His wife decides she’s had enough and leaves him, but with no support system in L.A., she turns to Roland and to drugs. Isa finally realizes what he has become, but it may be too little too late.
Sacred - Variety
Here is the Director talking about it
Everyone in movies wants to see their work on the big screen. Yet many black independent filmmakers have found a more profitable and impactful venue that had long been considered the kiss of death: straight-to-video.
Even before the surging popularity of DVDs led major Hollywood studios to focus on the home video market, black filmmakers saw the advantage there. Not only could they target their films directly to an underserved audience, but with lower budgets and overhead, they stood a better chance of making money.
“It’s the best way to go,” says Carl Seaton, a Los Angeles writer-director. His 2000 melodrama, “One Week,” got a limited theatrical release and decent reviews (the “New York Times” called it “scrappy and earnest”). Still, he’s opted to go direct to DVD next year with his feature “Sacred,” starring the rapper Nas.
“It costs so much money to release a film theatrically,” says Seaton, who made “Sacred” for $300,000, which he financed himself. “If you’ve shot your film on a small enough budget, you can make money very quickly on rental and retail sales, and Hollywood Video and Blockbuster [are] buying large amounts of product.”
Most of these “urban films” aren’t likely to come to a theater near you. The genre typically includes movies made for and by blacks, be it youth-oriented hip-hop fare, highbrow documentaries or adult-themed dramas with recognizable TV personalities.
Filmmakers of all ethnicities have gone straight-to-video for years. But black films were among the first to prove this market was more than a dumping ground, and they have subsequently paved the way for other genres traditionally shut out of theaters.
“We’ve seen a huge growth in product coming out of the Latin market and South Asia, specifically India — the whole Bollywood phenomenon,” said Nick Shepherd, chief of marketing and merchandising for Blockbuster, from his Dallas headquarters. “There is now a big requirement to stock our shelves in certain demographics with certain localized tastes.”
Straight-to-video gives new life to black films
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