After John’s absent father is struck by a stray bullet, Primo takes it upon himself to verse the young boy in the code of the streets—one founded on respect and upheld by fear. A member of the Bloods since the age of twelve—both in the film and in reality—the streets of Brooklyn are all Primo has ever known. While John questions whether or not to enter into this life, Primo must decide whether to leave it all behind as he vows to become a better husband and father. Set during those New York summer weeks where the stifling heat seems to encase everything, Five Star plunges into gang culture with searing intensity. Director Keith Miller observes the lives of these two men with a quiet yet pointed distance, carefully eschewing worn clichés through its unflinching focus. Distinctions between fiction and real life remain intentionally ambiguous, allowing the story of these two men to resonate beyond the streets, as they face the question of what it means to be a man.
-Genna Terranova
This film is co-presented by:
CAST & CREDITS
Directed by Keith Miller
Keith Miller is a filmmaker, painter, curator, and professor. A member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, he made his first short film in 2004. His first feature-length film, Welcome to Pine Hill, premiered in 2012 at the Slamdance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize, winning a total of five Jury prizes. Five Star is his second feature film.
Director
Keith Miller
Screenwriter
Keith Miller
Producer
Keith Miller, Daryl Freimark, Luisa Conlon
Editor
Keith Miller
Associate Producer
Alexander Mallis, Ynette Hogue, James Hogue, Mindy Miller, Lee Weinstein
