Boots Riley (Writer/Director)nn
Boots Riley has rocked national and international audiences for 20 years as the songwriter, producer, and frontman for The Coup- a radical funk/punk/hip-hop band from Oakland. Heu2019s also known as the frontman and lyricist of Street Sweeper Social Club, formed with Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine).nnRiley's penned 6 albums for The Coup, all receiving widespread critical acclaim, with two of them named u201c
Pop Album Of The Yearu201d by Washington Post and Associated Press, and u201c
Hip Hop Album Of The Yearu201d by Rolling Stone. nn
New York Post says "
Boots Riley ranks as some kind of genius." Jeff Chang said that u201che is one of the most influential poets and thinkers of this generation.u201d Stereogum says "
Boots Riley is a national treasure." While renown philosopher Slavoj Zizek says u201c
The very existence of a person like Boots Riley is a miracleu201d.nn
On the intersection of art and political organizing- heu2019s delivered lectures at Harvard, Stanford, CalTech, Oberlin, Evergreen, Clark Atlanta, Western Michigan, UW Madison, Hunter College, Drake, Brandeis, Concordia, Goldsmiths, University of Florida, Universitu00e0 IUAV di Venezia, University of Melbourne, University of Oregon, University Of Otago, UC Berkeley, UC Riverside, UCSC, and The Schomburg, among other places.nn
Boots Riley grew up in theater. His grandmother, Anita Patterson, was the director of Oakland Ensemble Theater in the 70s and 80s. he spent many summers with rehearsals around him, directions being yelled out, and costumes being made- while helping with mundane gopher duties.nn
As a teenager, he joined Berkeley's Black Repertory Theater- writing, directing, and performing plays in what was then a small, but reputable, storefront theater.nn
In high school, he was tasked by the drama class with writing the school play. It was to be an Oakland version of West Side Story called "
Eastside Story", and all the songs were to be raps. Although he had no experience as a rapper at that point I wrote the raps for the play, and performed them. He didn't get booed. Theater was actually his first foray into Hip-Hop.nn
Boots attended SF Stateu2019s film school, but quit in his third year at SF State after being offered a recording deal with Wild Pitch/EMI Records. He's a had a hand in 19 music videos and directed the video to The Coupu2019s u201c
Me And Jesus The Pimp In A u201979 Granada Last Nightu201d and the documentary short, u201c
Eating Foreveru201d.nn
During this same period talked about above, Boots was involved in many facets of grassroots organizing. He's headed up campaigns, helped to organize protests and work stoppages, and has been in situations where he's had to co-ordinate decisions and plans with groups of others amid tear gas, smoke bombs, and bean bags being shot at them. He's ready for his first feature now.nn
His book of poetry and anecdotes, u201c
Tell Homeland Security- We Are The Bombu201d is out now on Haymarket Press.nnnJONATHAN DUFFY & KELLY WILLIAMSnn
Jonathan Duffy and Kelly Williams, graduates of the film program at the University of Texas at Austin, first met while working at the Austin Film Festival in 2004. They later formed a partnership to produce Yen Tanu2019s feature Pit Stop that premiered at Sundance 2013 and was nominated for the 2014 Independent Spirit Awardsu2019 John Cassavetes Award. They produced Kat Candleru2019s Sundance 2014 selection Hellion starring Aaron Paul and Juliette Lewis, distributed by IFC Films. Recently, they produced Brad Besseru2019s Sundance 2015 documentary Beaver Trilogy Part IV as well as the 2015 SXSW narrative competition feature 6 Years directed by Hannah Fidell and executive produced by Mark and Jay Duplass.nnDuffy, who is based in the Bay Area, was a participant in the 2013 A2E Direct Distribution Lab hosted by The San Francisco Film Society. He is the co-founder of an award- winning organic food delivery business and a limited partner in several successful restaurants in Austin, Texas. He is currently participating in SFFS/KRFu2019s inaugural Producer Fellowship based at FilmHouse.nn
Based in Austin, Williams is a 2012 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow and producer of the indie features Cinema Six and Pictures of Superheroes as well as Kat Candleru2019s previous short films Hellion (Sundance 2012) and Black Metal (Sundance 2013). As a film festival programmer, he was awarded the 2007 International Film Festival Summit Excellence Award." >
Boots Riley (Writer

, Director) was born on April Fools' Day, but he is no damn fool. His drink of choice is bourbon, but he's thinking about switching to mezcal because he heard it's healthier. He studied film at San Francisco State University before ending his studies in favor of a major-label recording deal for his band, The Coup. Riley was raised-and still lives-in Oakland, California. Sorry To Bother You is his directorial debut.