RAMPAGE
Year: 2006
UK: Revelation Films
Cast (appearances): Swizz Beatz, Fat Joe, DJ Kaleb, Steve Rifkind, Ethiopia Habtemariam, Rich Christina, Eric Niks, DJ Laz (the pimp with the limp), Professor Joe Bryne, Detective Steve Bradjic, Terry Clarkson
Director: George Gittoes
Country: Australia
UK: 108 mins
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language
UK Release Date: 24 November 2006 (Limited Release)
Synopsis
Three brothers, two wars, one chance. Forget Baghdad, Miami's off the chain!
Synopsis (from above site and from prod notes on above website - reworded in places)
From the director of SOUNDTRACK TO WAR, filmmaker George Gittoes exposes the mirky underbelly of Miami, USA with his latest documentary on how music plays a part in people's life. This time it's not the American army in Iraq but in it's own backyard - life in a Miami 'hood. RAMPAGE is another undertaking into the forbidden zones and is an exploration of hip hop's musical innovations, just as the blues and jazz began in the black ghettos then went on to evolve as major music styles.
Gittoes follows a premise set up by the soldier musician Elliott Lovett, in SOUNDTRACK TO WAR, Iraq "we get shot at more in Miami than Baghdad". RAMPAGE takes us to a battered project near Miami airport, to meet the Lovett Family and the Brown Sub community, and explores the ways out - war, music, or death.
Elliot Lovett (23), the soldier Gittoes meets in a rap battle in Baghdad, links the two worlds of war, and takes us to Miami- where we meet street smart, Marcus Lovett (20), considered by Elliot to be the most talented rap artist of the family, and little brother, Denzell (14). When a 16 year-old hit man murders his talented older brother during the making of the film, Denzell is left with his lyrics and demo CDs, to carry the family's desperate hope that their music will get them out of the ghetto.
Opening a chance for Denzell, the film glides from the gutter of Brown Sub, Miami - the tough street world that Denzell has rapped about in RAMPAGE - to the giddy heights of the New York offices where Denzell meets, head on, the tests of the music business.