FOR IMMEDIATE RELAEASE

Contact: Katherine VanHenley

Tel. 323-337-9055

Email: kvanhenley@yahoo.com

 

 

OAKLAND FILMMAKER FOCUSES ON LOCAL PROJECTS

Short film to be featured at Oakland Airport

 

 

Oakland hasn’t failed to take notice of long time resident Mateen Kemet’s success since Hollywood’s On The Lot, where he placed as a finalist.  In fact, the Port of Oakland has commissioned a short film by him, to be screened on a new media display housed in the Southwest Airlines terminal of the Oakland airport later this year. 

 

The film, Oakland b Mine will show Oakland as a prime destination spot through a storyline wherein a traveler pursues his dreamgirl (also named Oakland) around the city.  The Oakland Airport receives approximately 5 million travelers each year and being housed in a busy terminal like Southwest Airlines, Kemet will surely find his work being enjoyed by an immense viewership throughout the coming year. 

 

Not that he’s any stranger to a large audience.  During On the Lot, his short films aired for the entire world to see.  Kemet placed 7th in this internationally aired reality show, and he was the only African American contestant, repeatedly earning America’s votes throughout his eight weeks of competition. 

 

After his outstanding finish, the Oakland Cultural Funding Program made him an honoree and keynote speaker for their First Annual Oakland Arts Day Ceremony on October 5^th and he was also featured as a panalist at the Oakland International Film Festival on October 20th.  On November 13^th, 2007, the Oakland film Commission will screen his award winning film silence as part of their bi-monthly Local Focus Screening Series at the Oakland Metro.

 

Since graduating from film school in 2003, Kemet has made quick strides towards international acclaim, including an invitation to FESPACO in Burkina Faso, West Africa – the world’s largest Arts Festival of the African diasporas, where he won the Special Director’s prize .  Locally, the San Francisco Arts Council awarded him with a Cultural Equity Grant for his latest script,  The Fillmore Flower which is scheduled to go into production early 2008.       

 

His rapid progress propelled by On the Lot, Mateen Kemet is on his way to becoming a major player within the film industry.   

 

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