{"id":28,"date":"2026-02-07T16:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T16:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/jtell034\/?p=28"},"modified":"2026-04-21T20:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:31:17","slug":"from-the-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/jtell034\/2026\/02\/07\/from-the-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jack Tellier<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a film is released, it is nothing short of a miracle. Most critics could never make one themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many film critics judge so harshly because they do not have the patience or understanding that comes with making a film. I\u2019m trying to make this sound as least-pretentious, or holier-than-thou, as possible. All of this is to say that it is extremely difficult to accurately judge something you have never done before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have made a feature film, it is a 100 minute documentary called \u201cJit.\u201d<\/a> I spent almost half of my teenage years creating it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creation of “Jit”<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the \u2018twenty-teens\u2019 there was a very specific image or stereotype people held in their minds when they thought of an independent rapper. A caricature of sorts in the form of an unfit, gun-flashing, face-tattooed, colored-hair, high on cough syrup and xanax, word-slurring nuisance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 2015-2019, a lot of these independent rappers were teenagers coming out of places in South Florida like Broward County or Miami. There was something very alluring about this lifestyle to middle\/high schoolers; so much so that kids all over my South Florida home began calling themselves \u201cLil [any word here].\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These children wanted to \u201cmake it\u201d as rappers and they wanted to do so with minimal effort and in a timely fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had made a few music videos during this time in high school. In 2019 I made one for an old friend named Evan; he had been making music since 2017 and showed no signs of stopping. Usually these kids would make one or two songs and abandon their SoundCloud account altogether. <\/p>\n\n\n

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After making another video for Evan in 2021, <\/a>I decided a month later that I wanted to make a short documentary about him and his rapper friends. Their music had much better production value than any of the other teen \u201crappers\u201d and I could see they were really passionate about their work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to make something that would shine a spotlight on these young artists and break the SoundCloud rapper stereotype that caused so many to disregard Evan and his friends. After about 6 months into filming Evan and the kids I met through him, I could tell this was going to turn into a different project entirely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I filmed over the span of three years was a group of teenagers who built something incredible together with their own hands, voices, and money that served as a temporary escape from internal pain and fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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