Some pretty astonishing feature films are set to premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Jay Z's six-part mini-series and the Pharrell-produced Roxanne Shante biopic produced by Pharrell are both set to be included.
Over thirteen thousand independent films were submitted to the Sundance Institute for a chance to be selected and featured at the upcoming festival. From that number, only a selected few were chosen and one of those included Roxanne Roxanne, the story of female rap legend Roxanne Shante.
According to the festival's site, the film was written and directed by Michael Larnell and produced by music producer Pharrell Williams and Forrest Whitaker. The film will not only document Shante's rise to fame beginning at the age of 14, but, it will also focus on the time where she slowly faded from the limelight of the music scene as an adult, according to The Grio.
Williams made the announcement on Instagram with a photo of Nia Long and Chante Adams who both star in the film.
Our film #RoxanneRoxanne has been selected for 2017 @sundanceorg!
A photo posted by Pharrell Williams (@pharrell) on Nov 30, 2016 at 6:40pm PST
Williams will not be the only hip-hop talent revealing a film project for 2017 filmgoers. As reported by Okayplayer, Jay Z has been working on a six-part miniseries documenting the life of Kalief Browder, who spent three years at Rikers Island without a conviction.
Though the docuseries in its entirety will air on Spike TV in January, the first two episodes will reportedly premiere at the Sundance Festival.
Of the 113 films selected to premiere at this year's festival, 37 of them came from first-time filmmakers. If the numbers are anything like last year's, they will have their opportunity to have their projects screened by more than forty thousand attendees.
Find more Sundance Films here.
