Strive

Strive (2019)

A teenager from the projects in Harlem aims to get into Yale, but must push against the world holding her back.

Kalani (Joi Campbell), is a teenager living in Harlem with her older brother Jacob, and her younger sister, Bebe, while her mother struggles to make ends meet. Her college counselor Mr. Rose (Danny Glover) sees great promise in her educational future. As Kalani's siblings get caught in a myriad of hardships, Kalani teeters on the brink of ruin as she struggles to keep both her family and her dream intact. Strive reminds us that hard work, optimism, and perseverance, in the face of overwhelming adversity, is the essence of what it is to be American.

Date of release
2019-05-19
TMDB
1.0 / 10 (1)
Runtime
1h 22m
Genres
Drama
Director
Robert Rippberger

Casting

Interesting facts

Strive is a 2019 American independent coming-of-age 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 while facing the challenging life in the projects and streets of Harlem - with her only ally being college counselor Mr. Rose.

Production

Pre-production for the film began at Aletheia Films and Prodigium Pictures 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 later that summer, hiring cast and crew that was mostly New York City-based. The events of the film loosely take place around the housing projects of the Polo Grounds Towers in Coogan's Bluff. 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.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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