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#ProfilePhotos #Alanna

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Kate! 

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Isadora reading Women Who Run With Wolves. 

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Headshots of Isadora :)

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Alanna reading. Kate on camera, Nicole + Isadora on sound.

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Time Is Illmatic follows the life and work of Nas crafting an inimate narrative from which the artist articulates in his own words - One9 and writer Erik Parker focus almost exclusively on the album that made Nas arguably one of the most prolific rappers of our time. The documentary tells his story loosely track by track. The film magnifies the dark points of rappers life and how it shaped him leading up to his debut album as opposed to only focusing pn the the glory of stardom he experiences today. This provides a window into his complex life and humble beginnings.Throughout the film we see the trials and tribulations through which Nas persevered through, we see through his own eyes the harsh realities of growing up in the project housing of Queensbridge, as well as the impact of the overall political environment and drug riddled streets of the time. He often pays homage to those that inspired him along the way. Through his story telling the film puts you in his shoes as he gives you his perspective of striving to see his gift to fruition amidst a sea of perhaps equally deserving peers that did not realize the same fate, but instead fell prey to the streets and life in general. 

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Time is Illmatic is a such strong documentary, because it interweaves Nas's life with the reality of black people in the United States. While his childhood story is presented, we discovered how "The projects" were created and how used to be living there at that time. Also, we are presented to differents characters that inhabited the same space as Nas and the differents directions life took each one of them. Furthermore, we discover about not only Nas’s trajectory in the industry music, but how this world were. For example, I didn't knew that djs used to the stars instead of mcs. Moreover, the reality of crack and what it did with the black people is told through an emotional perspective, showing the marks it left on people's lives. All these informations sewn with Nas`s life.

Besides that, I also really like to have depositions of other people from industrial music from that time and nowadays. It gives us another perspective about Nas, presenting us to how people see him and his music. The way Nas talked about Roxanne Shante and her importance in his earlier steps as mc is so important, because her history is very similar, but from a female point of view.

The show scenes are important to listen to his music, see how the crowd react to his art and also gives us the opportunity to see the product his made with his life history.

#AlannaAmorim #Timeisillmatic

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Time is Illmatic is told through archival footage and photos, sit down interviews, concert footage, and aerial shots/cinema verite in Queensbridge. While the main subject is Nas, the community he grew up within and around helps tell his story - his brother, father, friends, and the photos/music all help to illuminate his path. I particularly loved the close up interview shots with Nas and his father that just focused on their faces. We are presented with this larger than life celebrity, and yet his story is a humble one. His narrative always returns to his roots, the support from his parents and especially his mother, and the bonds he built in Queens as a child. The black and white image of Nas, his brother, and their friends as teens is haunting, especially as the film revisits the location and checks in on the community/where those friends are today. I enjoyed the film overall but felt that the concert sequence was too long towards the end - the pacing seemed unbalanced with the rest of the film.

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I liked that it wasn’t just Nas’ story, but other people’s stories as it related to a larger picture. These are the people and situations that created Nas. Their personal stories are just as important to his personal development. The doc I also felt was a tribute to Queensbridge. There were interviews and tons of archival footage.

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I found the most powerful storytelling aspect about Time Is Illmatic was the photos highlighting the stages of Nas’s life. Every time a photo is featured, it is captured in a new way, filmed in a scattered pile, or zoomed in on a particular person in the picture, bringing them to the fore, like a piece in a collage. They are integral storytelling tools. For example, when Jungle shows us the photo of their neighbors and friends, posing for the Illmatic photo shoot, he explains where each person as ended up in recent years, most of them serving time or dead. It is a huge testament to Nas’s motivation for writing about where he grew up, and why he hopes to honor and represent his friends with his music.   There was also a great deal of archival concert footage. I feel like it was such an effective choice to showcase Nas’s music. Rather than parsing together music videos or extra b-roll simply accompanied by the Illmatic audio tracks, the filmmakers present Nas in his element, performing live, sharing his music with others. It adds an entirely different stylistic dimension to the film.