IMDb RATING
7.0/10
2.5K
YOUR RATING
Grand Jury Prize, 1998 Sundance Film Festival. A talented youth (Saul Williams) copes with urban crime and despair by competing in poetry slams. Sonja Sohn of "The Wire" costars.Grand Jury Prize, 1998 Sundance Film Festival. A talented youth (Saul Williams) copes with urban crime and despair by competing in poetry slams. Sonja Sohn of "The Wire" costars.Grand Jury Prize, 1998 Sundance Film Festival. A talented youth (Saul Williams) copes with urban crime and despair by competing in poetry slams. Sonja Sohn of "The Wire" costars.
- Awards
- 4 wins & 3 nominations
Rhozier Brown
- Public Defender
- (as Rhozier T. Brown)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe production team had only one week to shoot all the prison scenes.
- GoofsWhen Ray is on his way to the poetry night, he gets on the metro at the Cleveland Park station, rides, and gets off at the metro at the same station: Cleveland Park.
- Quotes
Ray Joshua: The wind is the moon's imagination wandering. It seeps through cracks, ripples the grass, explores the unknown. My love is my soul's imagination. How do I love you? Imagine.
Featured review
Review
When growing up in the ghetto one of the hardest things to do is find yourself. "Slam" written and directed by Mark Levin, is the story of a man named Ray Joshua (Saul Williams). Being surrounded by gangs and drugs he gets sent to jail when a drug deal goes bad. While in jail he realizes his passion for poetry. This inspiring story of a man overcoming the ghetto, turning his life around, and discovering his passion is a story that shows if you have a good head on your shoulders you can do anything you put your mind to.
In the movie there are many things that try to define Ray: society and race and the justice system are some of the major ones. Somehow with all the forces against him through expression and poetry Ray defines himself. After getting arrested for a small charge of possession of marijuana because of the justice system he is forced to either confess or go to court and fight it which would wither way get him 3-10 years. There was no winning for him.
With the themes of race, drugs, gangs and jail this movie makes it easy for people to connect to. One of the best parts of the movie was at the end when Ray finally finds his way and performs in a poetry slam. It was a powerful scene full of emotion. This movie sends many different messages. One of which is when you find something you are passionate for you should find a way to show others and express yourself through it. For example when Ray performed at the poetry slam; it wasn't his usual scene but he got out of his bubble and went for it.
In the movie there are many things that try to define Ray: society and race and the justice system are some of the major ones. Somehow with all the forces against him through expression and poetry Ray defines himself. After getting arrested for a small charge of possession of marijuana because of the justice system he is forced to either confess or go to court and fight it which would wither way get him 3-10 years. There was no winning for him.
With the themes of race, drugs, gangs and jail this movie makes it easy for people to connect to. One of the best parts of the movie was at the end when Ray finally finds his way and performs in a poetry slam. It was a powerful scene full of emotion. This movie sends many different messages. One of which is when you find something you are passionate for you should find a way to show others and express yourself through it. For example when Ray performed at the poetry slam; it wasn't his usual scene but he got out of his bubble and went for it.
helpful•10
- jessica_abel16
- May 23, 2010
- How long is Slam?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $1,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $1,009,819
- Gross worldwide
- $1,009,819
- Runtime1 hour 40 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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