We don't wait forthem to find us.We find them.
Film Skoolie is a Detroit-based mobile film lab that discovers the next generation of filmmakers in the neighborhoods where they live. We cultivate their holistic awareness, technical skills, and creative vision to develop artists whose lives and work aim to author the transformation of culture through film.
My name is kA'RAMUU kUSH and Film Skoolie is my ikigai.
I teach young people how to see the world through two sets of eyes — the eyes in their heads and the eyes in their minds.
I'm from the salt of a very specific earth, Detroit — born on the eastside, raised on the westside. I attended Detroit public schools my entire life before dropping out of Cooley High. After dropping out, my creative ambitions led me to New York, then Los Angeles, before returning to New York to head the Acting for Film and Media BFA at Pace University.
I've survived Hollywood as a soul-rooted artist and continue to do so. In lockstep with my professional work as an artist has been my impassioned work as a native son of the community. And now, 30 years later — having taught, coached and directed countless others worldwide — I'm coming home.
In the spirit of legendary retro-mobile services like the Swimmobile and Bookmobile, my plan is to do more than just shoot films in the city. Beyond bringing another film to Detroit, my greater charge is to bring elevated filmmaking to Detroit.
I believe we can improve literacy, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, problem solving and collaborative skills through the language of the 21st century: visual narrative storytelling.
As evidenced by the deluge of technology and social media, there is no art form as influential and pervasive as visual narrative — and those who are empowered to harness it. Thus, Film Skoolie.
"I believe there are countless 'Ones' in the unexplored matrix of communities where I grew up. I feel compelled to go back into these communities — my communities — and locate every single 'One' we can find."
How Film Skoolie works
April through October, Morpheus parks on a designated block in one of Detroit's neighborhoods, each month — hosting a full 4-week filmmaking residency .
Neighborhood Residencies
Each month, Morpheus parks in a different Detroit neighborhood. Youth are recruited and taught the art and craft of filmmaking — writing, directing, cinematography, editing — in an intensive 4-week cycle.
Filmmakers-in-Residence
Recently graduated film school students work on their first feature scripts while serving as Teaching Artists. They receive room, board, transportation, and a stipend — a critical early-career bridge that also invests in the next generation of Detroit filmmakers.
Block Party Screenings
Each residency culminates in a neighborhood Block Party — a community celebration where families gather to watch films made by their own youth. The full 7-month cycle closes with a city-wide festival at The Aretha Amphitheatre.
7 months. 7 neighborhoods. One city.
Film Skoolie rotates once a month to a different city block, April through October. Each stop is a new neighborhood, a new block, a new cohort of young filmmakers waiting to be found.
What one year produces
- Youth culminate with competitive filmmaking proficiency and career prospects
- Students enrolled in universities with competitive portfolios
- Community activation through free public film screenings and block celebrations
- Emerging filmmakers supported at the critical early-career stage
- Films distributed on social media platforms to worldwide audiences
kA'RAMUU (pronounced kah-rah-moo) kUSH is a distinguished filmmaker who writes, directs, and acts, with work spanning cinema, theatre, and the classroom. Born and raised in Detroit, he made the journey from high school dropout to college professor — a lifelong commitment to growth as praxis. His artistic lineage was shaped through the mentorship of Sir Sidney Poitier, John Singleton, and Woodie King Jr.
He earned his MFA in Filmmaking at AFI Conservatory — graduating with the cohort ranked "…#1 film school in the world…" by The Hollywood Reporter. His work has screened at Cannes, Sundance, Tribeca, ABFF, and beyond — with broadcast credits on CBS, BET, HBO, and Cinemax.
Prior to university appointments, kUSH served as Founding Associate Director of the Junior Scholars Program at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem — designing and managing Arts in Education programming and hiring Teaching Artists, among them frequent collaborator Chadwick Boseman. He subsequently served as Associate Director of LA Bridges, an after-school gang prevention program at Audubon Middle School in South Central Los Angeles, where he implemented Arts in Education curriculum for a student population that was 50% foster care youth.
kUSH served as Lecturer / Master Instructor at Howard University in the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, Department of Theatre Arts, teaching Acting for Film + TV for a decade before accepting responsibilities as Associate Head, Program Head and currently Associate Professor and Industry Liaison in the Acting for Film and Media BFA program at Pace University's Sands College of Performing Arts — the first undergraduate program in the US dedicated entirely to developing actors for filmed performance. At Pace, he redesigned the curriculum into a multi-hyphenate Acting, Writing and Directing conservatory model, developing the whole artist — technically rigorous, emotionally available, self-actualized on and off camera.
Lincoln Center Director's Lab Alum · National Alliance of Acting Teachers Lloyd Richards Fellow · 2nd Stage Theatre Van Lier Directing Fellow · NBC Directing Fellow · Mentor on President Obama's United We Serve Initiative · Sundance Collab Advisor · Pan African Film Festival Filmmaker-in-Residence · Jefferson Award Bronze Medalist · Voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (A.M.P.A.S)
Somewhere in the D, the One is waiting.
Every dollar invested in Film Skoolie is a dollar invested in the story of a Detroit child who must be seen, heard and found. It is a dollar invested in a mentor arriving with the keys to accessibility in a neighborhood that's been waiting. It is a dollar invested in community gathered to celebrate their children, watching them explore and express their latent genius through visual storytelling.
Detroit is where we begin...
Get in touch
Whether you're a potential partner, donor, educator, or community member — we look forward to connecting with family we have yet to know, let's be in touch.