 Ya’Ke Smith
Staff Writer Ya’Ke Smith knew he wanted to make movies after watching the 1991 film “Boyz N the Hood,” a tale about a group of friends growing up on the mean streets of Los Angeles. From that flash of inspiration, the Sam Houston High School graduate went on to win several filmmaking awards and be named “one of this generation’s directors to watch” by several film festivals. “I was always a storyteller, but I didn’t know how to channel that,” Smith, 27, said. “When ‘Boyz N the Hood’ came out, I knew that was the medium I wanted to work in. We had drug deals in our backyard, things like that. I knew those characters—I grew up around them and lived in the situations they were in.” Smith wrote his first film at the age of 15. With the support of teachers at Sam Houston High School, Smith often borrowed cameras from the school. He would film his movies on the weekends using his friends as crew and management. “I thought I could make films and impact people in that way, give them something to relate to,” Smith said. “Films don’t completely change lives, but they do wake you.” Smith’s first film, “A Cry For Help,” was about a 15-year-old girl who becomes pregnant by her drug-dealer boyfriend. She leaves her mother’s home, only to be abandoned by her boyfriend. She is forced to reconcile with her mother. Smith said “A Cry For Help” was inspired by people and events around him. “Most of my stories come from things I’ve experienced or people I know have experienced,” Smith said. “My cousin got pregnant at 15, and watching that play out inspired the first film. Growing up on the East Side, there were a lot of things you could pull stories from. Instead of getting involved with gangs, I would pull stories from it. That’s how I channeled my energy.” Smith said that the support he received in high school from family and teachers helped keep him moving forward. “I had great teachers at Sam Houston (High School) that encouraged me,” Smith said. “I always had the support of my family. Growing up on the East Side, I lived around a lot of people who didn’t have a big goal. I felt that it was because they didn’t have any inspiration or anyone pushing them. I always say I hope one day I can go back and be an inspiration.” Smith’s wife, Mikala Gibson, is an actress that appears in his films occasionally. His current manager, Ralph Lopez, is a friend from high school who has been with him since he started making films.  A scene from Ya’Ke Smith’s movie, ''The Second Coming.'' Courtesy photo He produced a short film called “Hope’s War,” about an American soldier who returns home from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder as his pre-thesis project in 2005. The film won the Directors Guild of America Student Film Award and was shown at the Cannes Film Festival as part of Kodak’s Emerging Filmmaker Showcase. It was also broadcast nationally on Showtime Television’s Black Filmmaker Showcase and was a finalist of BETJ’s “The Best Shorts Film Competition.” Smith’s latest film, “The Second Coming,” is about an estranged father and son learning about forgiveness and redemption. It was nominated for a Student Academy Award at the University of Texas. It also won the HBO Short Film Award at the American Black Film Festival in Miami, Fla. His work has also been screened at the Pan African Film and Arts Festival, the Sedicorto International Film Festival Forli and the Los Angeles Shorts Film Festival. Rather than making art simply to make art, Smith hopes to inspire his audience to think and be inspired. “I made (“Second Coming”) not only because my father and I don’t have a relationship, but I remember a lot of people not having a relationship with their fathers,” Smith said. “It doesn’t have to be that way. A lot of us (didn’t) know how to be a man because we never had a man in our lives. We’re looking to the streets to be a man. It’s a never-ending cycle of jail, drugs, gangs and it has to end somewhere. I would hope someone would watch a film like that and realize, ‘OK, I don’t have to be that way.’” Currently, Smith is raising funds for his first feature film, “Stolen Dreams.” No matter where his career might take him, he said San Antonio will always appear in his work. “San Antonio will always be a part of me,” Smith said. “The majority of my films are based in the urban settings of San Antonio. It’s where I grew up, it’s what I know. When I’m writing, I’m thinking of the story and certain locations. Like this happened at Sam Houston or this happened at Davis Elementary (School). The backdrop of my films will always be San Antonio.” For information on where to view Ya’Ke Smith’s films or get more information, visit www.exodusfilmworks.com or his MySpace page at www.myspace.com/yake80. |
