#guntrilogy

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Damn near 20 years later that N.O.R.E. album still hits harder than anything out now. @therealnoreaga @drinkchamps @whoscrazy #guntrilogy #gatstrategy

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PARIS IS IN HARLEM Trailer: The musical ensemble dramedy marks Christina Kallas’s third and final installment in her ‘Gun Trilogy,’ following previously helmed ‘The Rainbow Experiment’ and ’42 Seconds of Happiness.’

Christina Kallas writes and directs her third and final installment in her ‘Gun Trilogy,’ which delves into the prevalence of guns in America and American culture. The NY-based director previously helmed ‘The Rainbow Experiment’ and ’42 Seconds of Happiness.’ “As a European filmmaker making films in America, I’m somewhat obsessed with guns ending up in the wrong hands,” says Kallas as her Slamdance and Galway-debuted feature PARIS IS IN HARLEM, a kaleidoscopic jazz-infused dramedy, is about to hit platforms on Thursday, July 4th. “In ‘Paris is in Harlem,’ I am focusing on the intersecting lives of strangers passing one another on the street, unknowingly linked by music, by hardship, by the city they live in—and by the ever-present possibility of violence.” 

The film was shot entirely on location in New York City and is set in 2017, on the day the 91-year-old cabaret law, which banned dancing in bars and initially targeted jazz musicians in NYC—causing many to leave for Paris—was repealed. Fittingly, the legendary Harlem nightclub Paris Blues is the center of gravity for the multiple narratives. The film is dedicated to its late proprietor, Sam Hargress Jr. and has won heartfelt reviews including: “a visual masterpiece” (Film Threat); “a multi-layered narrative that’s a love letter to jazz and New York City” (HorrorBuzz); “a masterclass in storytelling” (FilmInk); and “like Spike Lee’s work, Kallas’s film exists on the lived-in streets of New York, and, in the film’s triumphant final moments, shows us that no matter what challenging road is mapped out for us, there is always a chance for human connection.” (BRWC)

PARIS IS IN HARLEM concludes the trilogy by tracing the journey of a gun from an active shooter drill in a college to a Jazz night club, intertwining the lives of characters from disparate stories while simultaneously addressing our current era of cancel culture. The film features a large ensemble cast of 22 well-known film and theater actors including Leon Addison Brown (‘American Rust,’ ‘The Knick’) and Souléymane Sy Savané (‘Our Father, The Devil,’ ‘Goodbye Solo’,) and showcasing some of the most prominent jazz talents of this generation: saxophonist Tomoki Sanders, descendant of the legendary Pharoah Sanders; virtuoso drummer Kojo Odu Roney; guitarist William "Space” Patterson; bassist Marlon Martinez; vocalist Camille Thurman; and last but not least, saxophonist Antoine Roney, brother of the late Grammy-winner Wallace Roney and godson of Dexter Gordon. The soundtrack features their compositions, paying homage to pivotal moments in films like Bertrand Tavernier's ‘Round Midnight’, starring Dexter Gordon, the lesser-known ‘Paris Blues’ by Martin Ritt, featuring Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier, and, of course, Shirley Clarke’s films, which were a strong inspiration to the filmmaker.

As her film releases just two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court’s startling decision to overturn a federal ban on bump stocks which can transform a legal semi-automatic weapon into an illegal machine gun, Kallas explains the motivation behind her ‘Gun Trilogy:’ “Like most European filmmakers, I was raised on a diet of American films and TV—and one of the things that these exported to the world was guns as part of our vernacular. Whether it was westerns or gangster movies, thrillers or action movies, or urban films featuring the growing despair of a dysfunctional society, they cannot be imagined without guns. In that sense, there is a dissonance between the political uphill battle for gun regulation in the midst of the rising numbers of mass shootings, and the fact that guns continue to be prominently featured in our art and entertainment. Let’s face it, guns are often portrayed as cool assets, even when they signify social decay. What I am particularly interested in is the ease with which guns can land in the wrong hands whether it’s because of their easy availability, the state of the mental health system, the lack of regulation or, lastly, because of their perceived and perpetuated coolness.”

‘The Rainbow Experiment’—celebrated as a dark and playful 21st-century Rashomon—centers around an incident in a science class, plunging a public NYC high school into chaos as teachers crumble, students spiral, and the school board launches an investigation. The film grapples with gun control in the educational system, opening with an explosion and culminating in a shooting involving two bereaved parents. In ’42 Seconds of Happiness’, another powerless victim—this time a woman cheated on by her thoughtless husband—becomes a potential perpetrator, seizing power and a false sense of control by obtaining an easily available gun. As one character in ‘The Rainbow Experiment’ observes, “It’s the easiest thing to have a gun in America.”

PARIS IS IN HARLEM is now available digitally across major platforms in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK. 

Check out the film’s first trailer here. 

Check out the filmmaker’s bio here.