Slam is a 1998 independent film starring Saul Williams and Sonja Sohn. It tells the story of a young African-American man whose talent for poetry is hampered by his social background. It won the Grand Jury Prize for a Dramatic Film at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival.
Synopsis
Raymond Joshua (played by Saul Williams) is a young man growing up in the Southeast Washington D.C. area known as Dodge City. Despite his innate gift for poetry and his aspiration to be a rapper, he finds it difficult to escape the pressures of his surroundings: violence and drug dealing.
While participating in a drug deal gone bad, Ray's close friend is shot right in front of him, and Ray is caught by the police and sent to prison. When his lawyer explains the judicial system & his 'options' (or lack thereof) Ray despairs, particularly as he is being pressured to participate in a drug culture "inside" very similar to what he was a part of "outside" - but Ray's recent experiences have precipitated an awakening of sorts, and he sees the truth behind the game, and is unwilling to take a "side", unwilling to believe that his options are limited to the choices he's being presented with. When threatened with violence in the prison yard, he makes the radical choice to retaliate with words, to speak the truths that he's witnessed in the form of a poetic rap - in an attempt to open the eyes of his peers, his fellow prisoners - so that they might begin to see how their power and energy is being diverted into petty struggles with each other, rather than being directed toward the real enemy, the system that is keeping them down.
In prison, he participates in the writing class of teacher Lauren Bell (Sonja Sohn), whom he comes to respect and admire. She advises him to pay more attention to his talents.
When Ray is unexpectedly released on bail for a few precious days (prior to his court date), he is able to convince his friends, and their Dodge City Crew, not to retaliate with more violence for the shooting - to break the cycle instead. Ray explains that the "projects" where they all live and die are just that - a project, a government experiment - and that continuing to kill each other is exactly what those who set up the experiment want them to be doing. (His bail is payed for by an incarcerated - but wealthy and connected - dealer whom he has inspired with his revolutionary ideas & approach. "Hopha" (played by Bonz Malone) agrees to get Ray out if he will go convey his message of peace to their mutual associates.)
On the outside he also reunites with Bell, and is welcomed into her circle of friends at a gathering (and poetry reading) at her home. They wind up spending the night together despite her reservations about the future, as he asks her "only for now". The next day she urges him to settle his legal troubles by agreeing to serve a year or two of time, rather than fighting the charges and potentially being put away for much, much longer. They quarrel, because Joshua feels that she doesn't understand his situation, that she isn't sticking up for him, and he takes off running. But he shows up that night at a poetry slam event in D.C. that Bell had invited him to, just in time to see her perform an extremely powerful piece that was clearly written for him, in deep empathy for his experience. When the crowd demands an encore, she invites Ray onto the stage to perform instead, and he delivers an impromptu dramatic poem - scrawled as he crossed the city on public transit, on his way to the slam - an emotional piece about black males and the criminal justice system. When the crowd goes wild, demanding an encore, Ray takes off again, after telling Lauren he needs to get some air.
He runs, and then walks, wandering the streets until he is drawn, as if magnetically, to the Washington Monument - which seems to symbolize all that he's up against. The final shots show him in silhouette, moving toward and then pressing against the giant, glowing white phallus - then the camera pans up, to take in the vast height of it. And that's it - an unusually ambiguous conclusion - there's no perfect answer, you don't know which path he will choose when he goes to court on Monday, but you do know that Lauren has told him (as he left the club) that she will be there for him, no matter what he chooses.
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