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Naiquan Greene's Shortlist

Published on August 14, 2007

The Shortlist article series is your opportunity to learn about the films that inspire intellectual, artistic and activist leaders. Gearing up for back to school, we bring you the shortlist of young and talented filmmaker Naiquan Greene. Find out about Naiquan's favorite films, his inspiration in life and his thoughts on filmmaking and the power of documentary film to change the world!

Emerging leader and filmmaker, Naiquan Greene.

Who is Naiquan Greene?

Naiquan Greene is a young filmmaker and scholar who was recently selected to be part of the seventh annual Media That Matters Film Festival. At the festival, Naiquan received the Emerging Voice Award sponsored by The-N Network for his film Superstar.

Superstar is Naiquan's first film. He made it in 2005 while attending Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, founded by John and Stephanie Walter Williams. Soon after, in 2006, Naiquan was chosen to be a young film critic by Brooklyn Academy of Music's Young Film Critics Program. A year later, Naiquan was handpicked out of thousands of inner city high school students to become a Posse Scholar by the The Posse Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to diversifying school campuses across the country by sending eleven high school leaders to each of its member colleges. Naiquan is now preparing for his new journey as a college student and is excited to further develop his skills as a filmmaker.

Naiquan has just begun his journey in the media industry, but with a second documentary in the works, he has already achieved some of his many goals in the field of entertainment and media. A long-term goal of his is to follow in the footsteps of actor/director Ron Howard, who also began his career at a very young age.

Naiquan Greene on the Power of Documentary

The power of documentary film is in its ability to place viewers at the pulse of a living, breathing event, while still capturing the dramatic and special effects that narratives do. Documentaries have a uniqueness that is unlike narratives. Narratives paint stories based on characters, places, times and events that may have happened once upon a time. Documentaries take you on a journey as the story is being painted. In today's society, people are looking to decipher the fantasy from the reality. Documentaries help us to become aware of the realities of the world around us.

Naiquan's Film Picks

Rize: A documentary that taps into the heart and soul of dancers and non-dancers everywhere. This film really helped me to realize that growing up in the inner city or less wealthy parts of town isn't such a bad thing. In fact, growing up this way helped me to become a well-rounded individual.

By Standing: The Beginning of an American Lifetime: An honest film about the emotional remnants of 9/11. This piece brings me a feeling of comfort -- comfort in knowing that most Americans, not just me, want to feel safe. It puts me at ease to see that many Americans want to be able to walk outside of their front door without fear, but without having to go to war to relieve that fear.

Grace: It's great to see a film that touches an issue that most women are afraid to discuss, especially since this film was created by a young woman. Many women in my life have been raped and did not feel able to discuss it with family, or report the crime as soon as the crime had been committed. I like to think that this film is an ode to those women who were unable to receive justice.

Happy Ending: Growing up in a single-parent household, I can understand the director's love for his mother, no matter what she was doing or had done. This doc jumps off of the screen like a moving pop-up book, depicting what goes through a young man's mind as he copes with his mother's drug addiction. What can he really do to help her? Nothing. He can only love her for who she is and for indirectly teaching him to not make the same decisions in the future.

Battleground Minnesota: I just recently turned eighteen years old and realized after I watched this documentary that I need to keep abreast with what is happening in politics. I realized that I needed to be aware of both American and international politics, because my views and knowledge of the world around me can in turn affect current and future generations. Battleground Minnesota inspired me to read more about politics and solidify where I stand so that by 2008 I will be ready to vote wisely!

Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes: I love hip-hop culture and music. I love rappers like Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, Common, Mos Def, and Kanye West. But I never thought in depth about what the lyrics in hip-hop music actually said about me as a young black man, or about young black women, my mother, or even my grandmother.

When I was younger, I thought that if I did not act like Ghostface or talk like Onyx, I would be deemed less of a man. I've grown to realize that I don't identify with what hip-hop represents -— the Alpha male that gets all the girls and will kill any other man that stands in his way. This film helped me put a lot of things into perspective and think critically about the images hip-hop culture portrays to young men. Should I be glad to see random women showing their assets? Or should I be offended to see this exploitation of women?

I learned how to be a man from three important women in my life. Although I learned a lot about what a man was and wasn't from the experiences these three women had with men, as I get older, I understand that I cannot solely use these experiences to define who I am as a man. Upon watching this film I realized that I can take the images represented by the hip-hop industry, mix it with what I learned from those three influential women along with my own beliefs to become the type of man I want to be. A man beyond rappers, lyrics, and any other outside influences.