Photo: Gen Art

Yelling to the Sky, the new indie starring Zoe Kravitz and Gabourey Sidibe, is the kind of film best at home at the ultra-cool Gen Art Film Festival. It’s edgy, uncompromising and overflowing with young talent. The Festival, which comes to a close tomorrow, zeroes in on emerging filmmakers and follows each screening with a Q&A and an afterparty, making Gen Art the most audience-accessible of all NYC’s major film festivals.

In Yelling to the Sky, Kravitz portrays Sweetness O’Hara, a teen struggling to survive in an increasingly chaotic environment exploding with violence, drugs and sex in Queens. The daughter of a alcoholic Caucasian father and a mentally ill African-American mother, Sweetness is taunted about her racial background. Kravitz said she could relate because “both my dad and my mother are half-black and half-white. I didn’t experience the same kind of physical abuse [as Sweetness] because I was fortunate to grow up in a very safe environment, but I definitely felt confused, alone and scared and wasn’t sure of my place in the world.” Kravitz said that her parents “taught me not to take [the entertainment industry] so seriously and if you love art, do it and the rest is a mirage.” Kravitz, who grew up in New York, studied acting at SUNY Purchase’s Acting Conservatory. The most challenging part of playing Sweetness, for Kravitz, was “letting go of my ego. I definitely had to reach deep down and go to the darkest part of myself. I almost didn’t take the part because I was scared that I didn’t have it in me to let everything out, but Victoria helped me with that.”

Victoria is first-time screenwriter and director Victoria Mahoney, who grew up in Queens and Brooklyn and says the film “is semi-autobiographical. A film can inspire to people to get up and do whatever they can creatively so that they feel reflected in films as opposed to sitting there waiting for the film industry to take that leap.” It was shot in 35 mm in just 18 days, with a two-take maximum. Mahoney was admitted to the Sundance Writers Lab, where she polished the script, on the strength on her original screenplay. “I went to the Writers’ Lab, Directors’ Lab, Editors’ Lab, Filmmakers’ Lab; there’s a bunch of them. They provide incredible mentorship.”

Of her role as Latonya Williams, Sidibe said, “I was drawn to the aspect of playing a villain, someone who’s not easily liked; I thought that would be really interesting to play. I thought there was some unspoken reason why she and Sweetness do not get along. Because of whatever that was, they fight.” Sidibe, who has nominated for a slew of Best Actress awards—including an Oscar and a Golden Globe—for her screen debut in Precious, told us her “life hasn’t changed much since the Oscars” but she just finished shooting the second season of Showtime’s The Big C and also stars in Brett Ratner’s Tower Heist with Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy, opening in November.

Kravitz was enjoying the Gen Art Film Festival:  “I think it’s really great; it’s really cool bringing artists together. There need to be more places for young artists to show what they’re doing.”  She prefers the atmosphere around an indie-film versus a summer blockbuster.  “It was just fun making a group effort, you know? I love the idea of community. Trailers are fine but I also like everyone being in one room together. I love the idea of having blood, sweat and tears go into it and having a little part in every department. On a big film, someone’s been hired to do everything for you. I like that I had to help with the food and the wardrobe and bring my own clothes in.”

Not surprisingly, much of Kravitz’s wardrobe in the film consists of her own clothes. She learned about fashion from her mother, whose creative sense of style, particularly on The Cosby Show, was considered trendsetting. “She has great style,” said Kravitz about Bonet. “She also doesn’t take fashion so seriously. She has a good time and plays dress-up; she likes putting on ‘characters.’ It’s all about having fun and expressing yourself.” Kravitz loves “Alexander Wang and Alexander McQueen but most of the time, I wear vintage clothes.”

Yelling to the Sky will open in theaters this fall.