Ghetto Film School Benefit @ Bottino

Last night at Bottino, the barely-there air-conditioning wasn't doing its part in helping the sweat off my forehead. The shoulder-to-shoulder guests didn’t help either, and the cool white wine was futile. It was hot. I envied the rows upon rows of Heinekens, Coronas, and Amstel Lights, cooling off in a field of ice. So I drank as many as possible, because, well, screw them. But to be fair, revenge upon beer wasn’t my sole reason for sweating my away around the Chelsea restaurant. There was an event going on, funds were being raised, awards were being presented, and young talent was being recognized. The Ghetto Film School is a nonprofit film training program started in the South Bronx, and last night was their fourth annual Spring Benefit, celebrating excellence and raising money to send ten of its students to Uganda, for their fourth-ever thesis film project.

The school was born after Joe Hall, a Bronx social worker, followed his passion all the way to the prestigious film graduate program at the University of Southern California. There he was greeted with the harsh realization that Hollywood’s’ impenetrable wall goes up early. “There were about fifty kids in the program, and almost all were children of people in the movie business. There was one black girl, one Hispanic girl, and no black or Hispanic males,” says Hall. He returned to the Bronx determined to get neighborhood kids involved in the process of filmmaking. The Ghetto Film School went up in a South Bronx storefront in the summer of 2000. (Pictured above: Mike D, Ad-Rock, Rachel Horovitz, and Joe Hall.)

GFS has since gone on to amass an unrivaled group of guest lecturers and workshoppers, including Spike Jonze, Spike Lee, David O. Russell, and Jim Jarmusch; the Beastie Boys and Roc-a-fella co-founder Damon Dash are part of their benefit committee. Last night. Mike D and Ad-Rock of the Beasties showed up to lend their support to GFS—and to Ad-Rock’s sister Rachael Horovitz, who’s on the board of directors. Dash was also there, and he was so pumped to be repping the Bronx that when he ended a short speech with a powerful call-to-arms for Bronx filmmakers, he walked off stage, forgetting he was there to present an award.

Damon Dash eats pasta.

We later sat down with Dash, and between bites of ravioli verdi, asked why he crossed over into films (he’s produced several, including The Woodsman). “I’ve always been the best at everything I do,” he said. “In high school I was the best at baseball, basketball, football, hockey, lacrosse, drawing, everything.” But what attracted Dash to the Ghetto Film School? “I’m always looking for undiscovered talent. You think that when I discovered Kanye West and Jay-Z that people were digging them? Hell no. You have to foster young talent.”

Then Dash called over two lookers from Vanity Fair— who were more than eager to chat—; I tried to give him a parting handshake, but Dash opted for the fist pump instead, and I gladly obliged. It was time to scour the emptying dinner tables for some of the complementary DVDs (provided by Criterion and other sponsors IFC, CNN, CAA, Endeavour, and JP Morgan). Final tally: 1 copy of Monterey Pop, 1 copy of Death of a Cyclist, one copy of Blast of Silence, and one sweat-drenched shirt.