It’s no secret that Chicago, in the past few years, has become synonymous with urban violence. In fact, people
are now calling it Chiraq.

And the violence that is plaguing some neighborhoods in the city is what inspired Kevin Cooper, an associate professor at Columbia
College Chicago, to take action, when, last summer, violent deaths around the
world and in Chicago, especially, reached alarming levels.

According to Cooper: “I feel a responsibility to stand up and add
my voice to the choir of people trying to help the most innocent of the victims
by bringing awareness to this problem.” 

Producer DeAnna
Cooper also added that: “There are very few things as pressing as
the violence that plagues Chicago, our home. So many children suffer and they need our help.”  

The result is their new short film The Painter, which deals with a 12 year old boy, “who lives
in a world where violence surrounds him. His sole means of survival is to
escape the violence outside by creating art.  He begins this day like every other, with walls covered with newspaper clippings that
chronicle the epidemic death toll in the inner city”.

It is in this terrible situation that the young boy
explains his existence and comes to terms with the world he lives in through his art.

The film is currently on the film festival circuit having
been recently screened at Montreal’s
World Film Festival and moves on this month to LA Shorts Fest and Urbanworld
Film Festival in New York.

Here’s the trailer for the film below. For more info about the film go HERE.