''Strive'' is a 2019 American independent

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...

drama film. Set in Harlem, the film tells the story of Kalani Johnson (JoiStaRR), a driven 18-year-old high school student who dreams of getting accepted into

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

while facing the challenging life in the projects and streets of Harlem - with her only ally being college counselor Mr. Rose (

Danny Glover Danny Lebern Glover (; born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director, and political activist. He is widely known for his lead role as Roger Murtaugh in the ''Lethal Weapon'' film series. He also had leading roles in his films include ...

). The film premiered at the

Harlem International Film Festival The Harlem International Film Festival (Hi) is an annual five-day film festival in Harlem, New York. The first festival took place in 2005. Michael Franti's ''I Know I'm Not Alone'' was named Best International Documentary at the festival that ye ...

in May 2019. In June 2019, it screened in competition at the

American Black Film Festival The American Black Film Festival (originally called the Acalpulco Black Film Festival) is an independent film festival that focuses primarily on black film—works by Black members of the film industry. It is held to recognize achievements of film ...

in Miami,http://www.abff.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019-ABFF-OFFICIAL-SCHEDULE.pdf and won the Jury Award for "Best Screenplay".

Cast

* JoiStaRR as Kalani Johnson *

as Mr. Rose * Shaylin Becton as Bebe Johnson * Ricky Flowers Jr. as Jacob Johnson * Chelsea Lee Wiliams as Grace Johnson * Warryn Campbell as The Pastor * Tony D. Head as Mr. Stokes

Production

Pre-production for the film began at Aletheia Films and

Prodigium Pictures Max Deml (born 1957) is a German-Austrian writer for environmental and financial magazines, publisher and entrepreneur. Since October 1991 he has been editor-in-chief of ''Ökoinvest'', a bi-weekly German-language stock market newsletter conce ...

in early 2017. Writer Sha-Risse Smith set out to make an inspirational film: "I wish I had a film like this when I was going to boarding school. ..I want people to watch this and say, if Kalani can do this I can too." Glover joined the film in pre-production as Mr. Rose, a pivotal character for the film. ''Strive'' was shot on location in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

later that summer, hiring cast and crew that was mostly

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

-based. The events of the film loosely take place around the housing projects of the Polo Grounds Towers in

Coogan's Bluff Coogan's Bluff is a promontory near the western shore of the Harlem River in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. Its boundaries extend approximately from 155th Street and the Macombs Dam Bridge viaduct to ...

. The namesake for the film is Striver's Row. Filming took place in and around both of these locations. Residents and community leaders of Harlem were consulted to the choice of locations and depictions of characters. Post-production happened in Los Angeles, with Company 3 providing the coloring of the film. Campbell composed the music for the film, while JoiStaRR sang the closing song of the film.

Reception

Accolades

''Strive'' received the Audience Award, while JoiStaRR received the Best Actress Award at the Harlem International Film Festival and the film screenplay was awarded the Jury Award at the American Black Film Festival in 2019. It was screened at the San Francisco Black Film Festival in June 2019, at the Black Harvest Film Festival in Chicago in August 2019, at the

Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality * ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record * "Greater" (song), by MercyMe, 2014 *Greater Bank, an Australian ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

as well as the opening film for

The Valley Film Festival The Valley Film Festival (VFF) is an annual independent film festival held in the San Fernando Valley of northwestern Los Angeles, California. The VFF is a venue for new independent work by Valley residents as well as American and international fil ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in September.

References

External links

* * {{Portal bar, Film, New York City 2000s coming-of-age drama films American coming-of-age drama films Films about the education system in the United States Films set in the 2000s Films set in New York City Films about domestic violence 2010s English-language films 2010s American films