For Young Hip-Hop Artists, A Head Start in Music and Life

Chris "Kazi" Rolle, the epicenter of the new documentary "The Hip Hop Project," had it rough as a kid: Abandoned as an infant by his mother, raised in orphanages and foster homes in the Bahamas, reunited with his mom at 14 only to wind up on the streets of New York, Rolle found solace in hip-hop music. Then he found his footing with a high school program for at-risk kids and, in turn, created the Hip Hop Project for kids who, like him, needed guidance.

The film (see review on Page 29) was directed by Matt Ruskin and produced by Scott K. Rosenberg, the teacher whose Art Start program set Rolle straight and under whose tutelage he founded the Hip Hop Project one year out of high school.

"The whole goal was to connect students who are interested in the entertainment business . . . with industry professionals so they can learn how to do it themselves -- the nuts and bolts of the industry," Rolle says. "That was the carrot. That was the thing that made them want to come.

"But ultimately," Rolle adds, the program is "about self-development, building a special type of individual, a special type of artist who is responsible and principle-centered, so that once you leave their life they will make good decisions in life based on the skills that you taught them, the skills they learned during the process of creating this album." (The project's first album, "Are You Feelin' Me?," is available now, and Rolle's own debut, "Many Faces," is due out soon.)

The movie chronicles the students' album-making process, as well as Rolle's personal turbulence, including a reunion with his estranged mother. Letting the cameras film that heart-rending scene, Rolle says, was motivated by two things: his faith in the power of film and his need to be a role model.

"I think after seeing 'Hoop Dreams' in high school . . . I couldn't believe a movie could hit me like that," he said. "I wanted to do what they did" with "The Hip Hop Project." "Also, any resistance that I had [to filming the visit with his mother] was wiped away by the fact that along the journey, all roads led to her. Talking about being a man of integrity, telling people what they needed to do, I needed to do that."

Rolle's focus on integrity led him to encourage positive messages in the project's songs.

"It takes a lot of courage to stand out from the pack, do something different, especially in the teenage years when it's all about fitting in with what's cool," Rolle says.

He adds: "At the end of the day, it's about selling records. And at the beginning of the day, it's about being cool and fresh. As long as positive artists are cool, fresh and can show that they can sell records, we'll be all right."

Veber's 'Valet'

Francis Veber, master of farce and French transplant to Los Angeles, is releasing the 10th movie he has written and directed: "The Valet," a comedy of errors centering on Veber's alter ego of sorts, a bumbling guy named François Pignon, played by Gad Elmaleh. Pignon winds up in a harebrained scheme when businessman Pierre Levasseur (Daniel Auteuil) is photographed with his girlfriend, supermodel Elena Simonsen (Alice Taglioni), prompting Levasseur's wife to threaten divorce. But the photo also captures a passing Pignon, so Levasseur pays him to pose as Elena's boyfriend. Mayhem and confusion ensue (see review on Page 29).

The film was a hit in France when it was released last year. But, hit or not, Veber hears criticism about it and his other films, including 1998's "The Dinner Game" ("Le Diner de cons"), 2001's "The Closet" ("Le Placard"), which both did well in the United States. " 'Those films are sitcom-ish,' " Veber says he has been told. Yet, he says, "what I know about America is your best writers went on [to write for] TV because it's well-paid. I think it's a compliment for a feature to be sitcom-ish."

Especially for a foreign film that has to compete with megabucks Hollywood fare: "You have this feeling of being on a bike in the middle of big trucks on the highway," he says.

Of course, Veber's bike would be rocket-powered, seeing as how his movies tend to move at sometimes breakneck speed. Clocking in at 85 minutes, "The Valet" is no exception.

His fast and funny aesthetic seems to be irresistible to American directors, who keep trying to remake Veber's films. The one time it worked, it worked very well: His screenplay for 1978's "La Cage aux Folles" became the Robin Williams-Nathan Lane smash hit, "The Birdcage," in 1996. ("Father's Day" from 1997 and "The Man With One Red Shoe" from 1985 are among the flops.) Sacha Baron Cohen has signed on for "Dinner for Schmucks," a remake of "The Dinner Game," and the Farrelly brothers just won a bidding war to remake "The Valet."

Veber's advice to adapters? Keep it short. After all, he says, when he goes to most movies, "I have a feeling that I need a doggie bag to bring 20 minutes home."