Alias -- Film Description:
"'Black people have been the first at being last for a very long time. So now we're trying just to get even.' Alkatraz. Street rap thrives in the Toronto neighborhoods of Regent Park, Don Mills, and Jane and Finch where the music and lyrics are the voice of power and protest of marginalized communities growing up in urban poverty. Michelle Latimer makes her feature doc debut with a powerfully cinematic, observational doc that captures the realities of five Toronto rappers trying to escape the hustle of drugs and danger through their music. Featuring rap artists and producers Alkatraz, Trench, Alias, Knia and Keon, the film digs deeper than the usual portrait of the rap world as glamour, guns and swagger. Intimate scenes reveal a layered, complex portrait of their lives and dreams of achievement, their families, violence and conflicts with the cops to show what it takes to survive on the hyper-masculine streets of the hustle in the T.Dot."
-- Lynne Fernie

Source:
Hot Docs Screening Schedule. Toronto: Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, 2013. [booklet]