Bronx Princess

Bronx Princess follows headstrong 17-year-old teenager Rocky's journey as she leaves behind her mother in New York City to reunite with her father, a tribal chief in Ghana, West Africa. Filmed over the tumultuous summer between high school and college, Bronx Princess tells Rocky's coming-of-age story.

Her precocious -- and very American -- ideas of a successful, independent life conflict with her father's traditional African values. Reconciling her dual legacies becomes an unexpected chapter in this unforgettable young woman's education.

Trailer

Credits

Bronx Princess
Directors/Producers: Yoni Brook and Musa Syeed
Executive Producer: Marco Williams
Cinematographer: Yoni Brook
Editor: Mary Manhardt
Composer: Blitz the Ambassador
Total Running Time: 38 min.
Website: www.bronxprincess.com
PBS Site: www.pbs.org/pov/bronxprincess

About The Filmmakers

YONI BROOK is a film director and photographer. His film A Sonís Sacrifice has been recognized at film festivals around the world, and earned Best Documentary Short honors at the Tribeca Film Festival and an International Documentary Association (IDA) Award for Best Documentary Short. The film was broadcast nationally in 2008 on PBS' Independent Lens series. In addition to Bronx Princess, which aired on PBS' POV series, Brook is currently co-directing, with Musa Syeed, The Calling, about young religious leaders, for national ITVS/PBS broadcast.

Brook is also a photojournalist with The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Seattle Times and The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal. He is regularly assigned to cover stories of national significance, such as Hurricane Katrina for Fortune and advertising campaigns for Target. His website is www.yonibrook.com

Brook's photography has received the field's highest honors at the Pictures of the Year International and Best of Photojournalism competitions. He was named the national College Photographer of the Year by the Missouri School of Journalism and was the youngest ever to be selected for Photo District News' '30 Photographers to Watch.' He speaks regularly about photojournalism and has instructed students at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

He is an alumnus of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and was selected to attend the CPB/PBS Producers Academy and the Berlinale Talent Campus.

MUSA SYEED is an independent filmmaker and writer. After producing A Son's Sacrifice and co-directing Bronx Princess, he co-directed, with Yoni Brook, The Calling, about young religious leaders, for national ITVS/PBS broadcast.

Syeed was a Fulbright Fellow in Cairo, Egypt, where he focused on experimental filmmaking. As a writer, he produced original theatrical work for the Children's Museum of Manhattan and is the film editor for Islamica Magazine. Syeed has worked as an educator in schools, community centers and prisons, and he is a professor of documentary production at Williams College. He serves as an advisor for film and television companies, including Thirteen/WNET.

He is an alumnus of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and the Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies Department.

Awards

Big Sky Film Festival: Best Documentary Short