FIRST LOOK

SXSW First Look: Mark Webber's Explicit Ills

by Alex Billington
March 4, 2008

The SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX begins later this week and we're looking at a few of the films that will be premiering there. Today is our final first look preview from SXSW for the feature film Explicit Ills, written and directed by Mark Webber. Unfortunately we don't have a trailer for this, only a few photos, but it's one I definitely wanted to feature because it's high on my list of films to check out - it just sounds like it could be great. It stars Rosario Dawson, Paul Dano, Lou Taylor Pucci, Naomie Harris, and Tariq Trotter. In Explicit Ills, young love, drugs and poverty collide in the city of Philadelphia creating a beautiful tale of hope and the power of coming together.

The film follows four inter-connecting stories revolving around love, drugs and poverty in Philadelphia. Babo, an asthma ridden seven-year-old lives with his mother in the badlands of North Philly. His neighbor Demetri transforms himself into a well-read "smart" boy in order to get the girl. Michelle, a well-off art student is quick to fall into a drug induced love-affair with her dealer Jacob. Kaleef and Jill's marriage is strained as they pursue their dreams of bringing "produce to the people" as their teenage son Heslin focuses on competing in the World's Strongest Man competition. The lyrical and moving drama finds its core as all members come together in their fight for justice and self-discovery.

The first photo is of Babo, played by Francisco Burgos; the second photo is of his mom, played by Rosario Dawson; and the third photo is of Jacob, played by Lou Taylor Pucci.

Babo knows the hood and all its people too well.

His mom knows him best, like she loves him.

Jacob knows a lot more, maybe too much.

Explicit Ills is both written and directed by first-time filmmaker and indie actor Mark Webber, most known for his minor performances in indie movies like Broken Flowers and The Hottest State. This will premiere at the SXSW Film Festival with the first showing on Saturday, March 8th at 9:15PM. Explicit Ills doesn't have a US distributor yet, but I'm sure if it's good, it will be picked up eventually.

You can be certain that we'll be seeing this at SXSW and will be one of the first to report back on our thoughts. Check out the full-line up of films showing at SXSW this year.

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Related categories: First Look, Indies, SXSW 08