A short shout from writer/director Ryan Koo, titled Amateur, which is a shortened version of Koo’s forthcoming narrative feature Man-child, which follows a 13 year-old athlete through the competitive world of youth basketball.
The feature project was selected in 2011 by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), for their Emerging Visions initiative, which pairs 25 emerging directors and writers with established producers to mentor them through the current filmmaking landscape, advising them in the form of one-to-one meetings, workshops, and case studies.
Like a number of feature documentaries we’ve profiled on the competitive, cutthroat recruitment of young black boys/men (primarily) to play professional sports, Man-child (which isn’t a documentary, but a scripted work of fiction) seems like it’ll be taking a similar approach, but with basketball as the backdrop.
Koo raised over $125,000 via Kickstarter, to go towards production of the feature. The project counts Phil Jackson (as in the multiple NBA championship coach) as one of its backers.
Amateur, the short tease/prequel, focuses on an encounter between a street agent and a high school basketball player. What might initially look like a familiar tale, ends with a twist, so check it out.
Curtiss Cook Jr stars.
Watch Amateur below:
