Sabaah Folayan talks “Look At Me: XXXTENTACION”

blackfilm.com correspondent Koku Tona sat down with director and filmmaker Sabaah Folayan, and Chicago high school student Brandon Jones to talk “Look At Me: XXXTENTACION”, a film that documents the life, music, and struggles of Jahseh Onfroy, also known as XXXTENTACION. Onfroy was just a teenager when his career took off, and is considered the most prominent figure in the 2010s emo-rap/SoundCloud era.

“Look At Me: XXXTENTACION“, premiered on May 26^th. 

Check out the interview and let us know what you think!

About “Look At Me: XXXTENTACION”

The film explores how Florida teenager Jahseh Onfroy became SoundCloud rapper XXXTENTACION, one of the most streamed artists on the planet. Through frank commentary from family, friends and romantic partners, and unseen archival footage, director Sabaah Folayan offers a sensitive portrayal of an artist whose acts of violence, raw musical talent and open struggles with mental health left an indelible mark on his generation before his death at the age of 20.

“For someone struggling very openly, to put that on a stage and to offer it up for public consumption, I think is a very special type of courage and service that artists do. [X] was open about his issues. He didn’t necessarily win his battle before we lost him, but he gave us a space to talk about mental health and his internal struggle,” says director Sabaah Folayan about the film that dropped on May 26.

Check out the trailer here:

ABOUT – Sabaah Folayan

Through screenwriting, filmmaking, and speaking, Sabaah Folayan levels an optimistic yet unflinching gaze on the urgent questions of our time.Sabaah made her directorial debut at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, with the feature length documentary Whose Streets?. Nominated for Peabody, Critic’s Choice, Gotham and NAACP Awards, the film chronicles the experiences of activists living in Ferguson, Missouri when Michael Brown Jr. was killed. Whose Streets? was distributed theatrically by Magnolia Pictures, and broadcast for Television by POV. 

She went on to write for HBO’s Betty, a comedy series about a crew of young female skateboarders in New York City. Sabaah is currently completing her second feature documentary as a director and developing projects in fiction and new media.