Richard Stratton, Marc Levin, and Henri Kessler attend the 2023 Sundance Film Festival SLAM Premiere at Egyptian Theatre on January 22, 2023, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Steven Simione/Getty Images)
Editor's Note: The 25th Anniversary and digitally restored print of SLAM will be a part of UCLA's Festival of Preservations this weekend. Below read our coverage of its 2023 Sundance Film Festival screening.
By Stephanie Ornelas
Festivalgoers who attended the 1998 Sundance Film Festival might remember when they saw a young Momolu Stewart rapping from a Washington, D.C., prison in Marc Levin's drama SLAM. Just 16 years old, Stewart was serving a life sentence and made an appearance from the cell next to actor Saul Williams. Levin thought it was crucial to include scenes with actual prison inmates, and his film about a talented Black poet from the projects who's arrested on petty drug charges captured the hearts of audiences in Utah.
And it did the same thing at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, when the cast and crew returned to the mountain to see their film once again in its restored and remastered state at the Egyptian Theatre. Only this time, it screened in the Festival's From the Collection section. Levin was invited on stage and answered questions from the audience, but not before making one very special introduction.
Momolu Stewart attends the 2023 Sundance Film Festival SLAM Premiere at Egyptian Theatre on January 22, 2023, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Steven Simione/Getty Images) As you heard at the end, Saul was longing for a magical door - another way out of the dilemma he was in. Well, there's someone here who's walked through that door. He's a living miracle, and was 16 years old when we shot this film. You saw him in the beginning do freestyle rap with Saul Williams in the D.C. jail, he's a free man now after 23 years behind bars, and he's an inspiration to us all: Momolu Stewart.
The audience cheers as Stewart stands up to acknowledge the stage and Festivalgoers in the theater.
Levin then invites Williams and members of the cast and crew to join him for an exclusive Q&A panel led by Sundance Institute's John Nein, where they chat about what it was like watching the film 25 years later.
Saul Williams attends the 2023 Sundance Film Festival SLAM Premiere at Egyptian Theatre on January 22, 2023, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Steven Simione/Getty Images) I kept looking over my shoulder trying to see Momolu, says Williams. Because as Marc mentioned, that magical door, that blessing of having you here, brother, to experience what we experienced 25 years ago in this room - it means the world to us. And to me, it's about that.
When we started making this film, there was so much intention that we put into it. There was so much intention in the poetry, he continues. You can look at the sprouting of the slam scene and the spoken word scene, and where we are with prison reform and the way that we can now all talk about criminal justice and marijuana legalization, but the seed that affected us really was Momolu's presence.
Looking back at when he attended the Festival and saw SLAM over two decades ago, Williams explains, When I saw the film in this room, it was the first time I had seen it. And I was waiting to see whether that scene made the cut. When it did, I said, OK we did it,' referring to that first jail rap scene with Stewart.
It was the path to the future that finally gave us an answer, which is that fact that Momolu is here with us, adds Levin. And that, to me, symbolizes what Lauren says in the classroom scene: Never let anyone take your freedom. It may have taken 25 years to see the end a little differently, but I guess the thing that's most contemporary and emotionally affecting to me is the life choice dialogues - now marijuana is legal in D.C., thank goodness, but it was about those big questions about the life choices we make. Those resonated with me as powerfully today, maybe even more powerfully, since I was so concerned when we premiered the film. Levin recalls seeing distributors walk out during the premiere.
I remember not being able to just watch the movie because I was so nervous, and again, John, I want to thank you. Visually, it looks incredible.
The team and audience members also watched behind-the-scenes footage of their time spent filming in the D.C. prison and working with the facility's warden, Pat Jackson, a take-no-bullshit powerhouse whom Levin referred to as the studio chief. In one piece of footage, Jackson is filmed telling Levin and the crew that they are done filming for the day, saying, I don't care where you all want to make a movie. I run a prison.
Audiences also laughed at a behind-the-scenes clip of an inmate saying to the camera: Tell Hollywood to eat shit and die.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
07/05/2026
Journalists reporting on Sudan are working in one of the most complex and fast-m...
07/05/2026
Multi-year partnership positions Victory+ as a free home for Dallas Cowboys orig...
07/05/2026
From sideline reporting to directing and producing, the talented sophomore is building a well-rounded foundation for a career in live sports production
In the ...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital has received two Future Best of Show awards at NAB Show 2026. The COBALT blueCORE platform was recognized by TV Tech, and the COBALT PACIFIC ULL-...
07/05/2026
ESPN analyst Mina Kimes will host the televised semifinals and finals of the 202...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI, the global film streaming platform, has selected Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner. Bitmovin's encoding infrastru...
07/05/2026
NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and the U.S. Soccer Federation have announced...
07/05/2026
Angel City Football Club (ACFC) and Victory have announced a regional broadcast partnership bringing live match coverage to fans across the greater Los Angeles...
07/05/2026
Spiideo has announced the launch of AI Highlights inside Spiideo Play, its automated sports production platform. AI Highlights combines video, event data, audio...
07/05/2026
Leostream Corporation has announced a unified remote access ecosystem for high-p...
07/05/2026
The Atlanta Dream has partnered with Victory to stream all locally broadcast Dream games for free, expanding the team's digital distribution strategy and g...
07/05/2026
Riedel Communications has announced the appointment of Marc Engroff as Chief Fin...
07/05/2026
SES and ARD, Germany's largest public broadcasting network, have announced a long-term extension of their satellite distribution partnership through 2039. U...
07/05/2026
UpLight Technologies delivers a flexible video and lighting system for a new televised sportLaunching the Pro Cheer League required more than creating a compell...
07/05/2026
Full Day Productions and GSE Worldwide have announced Spikes Under the Lights, a...
07/05/2026
Seit dem Start im Jahr 2023 hat DJ (Beta) das personalisierte H rerlebnis von 94...
07/05/2026
Da quando stata presentata nel 2023, DJ (beta) ha aiutato a definire un'esperienza d'ascolto pi personalizzata per 94 milioni di utenti Spotify Premi...
07/05/2026
Since launching in 2023, DJ (beta) has helped shape a more personalized listenin...
07/05/2026
Desde o lan amento em 2023, o DJ (beta) j ajudou a deixar a experi ncia de ouvi...
07/05/2026
From our earliest days, Spotify has been built on a simple principle: Great audio should be easy to reach. It's what's driven us to expand from music to...
07/05/2026
Asian and Pacific Islander artists continue to shape the global soundscape, pushing creative boundaries and connecting with fans worldwide. This Asian & Pacific...
07/05/2026
Company announce long-requested choir instrument
In the latest expansion of their Symphonic Elements series, UJAM have introduced an all-new vocal instrumen...
07/05/2026
Modular-inspired sound generation with digital control
Buchla have introduced Ziggy, a new compact synthesizer built around the company's complex oscill...
07/05/2026
Combines analogue voices with digital synthesis and sequencing
Polyend have announced Drums, a new hybrid analogue and digital drum machine that combines sy...
07/05/2026
Control surface now officially supports four DAWs
When Nektar launched the Panorama CS12 control surface, it worked exclusively with Apple's Logic Pro, ...
07/05/2026
In the first quarter 2026, SGL Carbon generated consolidated sales of 184.5 million, which was 49.8 million, or 21.3%, lower than in the prior year (Q1 2025: ...
07/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and Greenerwave achieve precise and fast ESA antenna characteriz...
07/05/2026
Two multi-role L3Harris products - the Red Wolf launched effects vehicle and SK...
07/05/2026
L3Harris will be developing key features of a secure and resilient digital infra...
07/05/2026
Alysa Liu and Shohei Ohtani Help Drive Viewership as 91 of the Top 100 Broadcast...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 2026 NAB Show
Manufacturer Recognized by TV Tech and TVBEurope for Innovation in signal processing
Cobal...
07/05/2026
Software and hardware platforms, AI power and user-friendliness on show...
07/05/2026
Intinor will demonstrate its latest technical enhancements for the Direkt series at BroadcastAsia 2026. With a continued focus on reliable contribution and remo...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI has chosen Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner, replacing MUBI's legacy on premises encoding setup to improve scalab...
07/05/2026
Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026 Members of this years graduating class reflect on their proudest moments at Berklee and look ahead to whats next.
...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...
07/05/2026
At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...
07/05/2026
Strategic three-year partnership marks delivery phase of BFBS' next-generation media vision
Media organisation and military charity BFBS (British Forces Br...
07/05/2026
Amagi, the agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced the availability of its In-Content Ads offering v...
07/05/2026
Lightware Visual Engineering has developed Rack Taurus for rack-based environments such as education and corporate training spaces. It enables clean and simple ...
07/05/2026
Jigsaw24, the UK's leading media equipment supplier and systems integrator, will showcase its expanded end-to-end workflow capabilities at MPTS 2026, signal...
07/05/2026
Ease Live, an Evertz company, today announced that it has been granted a US Patent for its proprietary graphical overlay technology, the foundation for interact...
07/05/2026
Test & measurement innovator Leader Electronics of Europe will present an extensive range of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix test and measurement solutions at...
Richard Stratton, Marc Levin, and Henri Kessler attend the 2023 Sundance Film Festival SLAM Premiere at Egyptian Theatre on January 22, 2023, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Steven Simione/Getty Images)
