8 Mile
Followed by a post-film panel discussion featuring Chilla Jones, Moroney, Xcel & Cheyraq on battle-rap culture in the last 20 years since the film's release. Moderated by Dominique Bocanegra of The Hiphop Archive at Harvard.
Jimmy Smith (Eminem), aka B Rabbit, is a young white rapper trying to make a name for himself in Detroit's predominantly Black hip hop world. A factory worker living in a trailer with his alcoholic mother (Kim Basinger), his little sister, and his mother's loser boyfriend (Michael Shannon), Rabbit sees rap as his only chance to break out of his dead-end life. He lets out his frustrations with twisting, clever rhymes admired by his friends, who keep pushing him to enter a weekly rap face-off at a local club. When he chokes onstage and gets booed by the crowd, he's convinced he's missed his chance. But Rabbit takes one more shot at making his dreams a reality, going head to head with his nemeses in a ferociously creative freestyle rap battle.
Eminem won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Lose Yourself."
