On her first day at Brown in the fall of 1998, Jennifer Needleman '02 befriended Josh Asen '02. At the time, neither could have known that almost a decade later the duo would release their first full-length film as business partners.
Last year, Rizz Productions Inc., a company the two started in 2004, released the documentary, "I Love Hip Hop in Morocco," which follows the development of the first Moroccan music festival in the country's history dedicated entirely to hip-hop. The film "follows the whole story from the earliest conversation with the main characters," Asen said, and has been featured on CNN as well as in film festivals across the globe.
The film begins with Asen issuing a proposal for the music festival to the U.S. Embassy in Rabat, Morocco. After securing funding from the government and the Coca-Cola Company, Asen and a number of Moroccan hip-hop artists spend months organizing and preparing for Morocco's first ever hip-hop festival, which shares its title with the film. The documentary focuses heavily on the stories of the artists, who perform and speak in Moroccan Arabic, French and English.
But Asen said the film - and filmmaking in general - was not something the pair considered until after they left College Hill.
After graduating from Brown, Needleman and Asen parted ways temporarily. Asen, who majored in French and music studies, took a job with a hip-hop music label. His interests in hip-hop and the Middle East soon converged on a chance trip to the region.
"I initially went to Morocco just to visit an ex-girlfriend of mine who was studying abroad there," Asen said, adding that he "just stumbled on hip-hop" there. He then grew interested in studying hip-hop as an emerging musical style in Morocco.
On the advice of his then-girlfriend, Asen applied for and won a Fulbright scholarship in 2004 to do research on hip-hop in Morocco. There, he noticed that most hip-hop groups had access only to small clubs and youth centers, and he recognized a demand for more large-scale performance opportunities.
"Many groups had been trying to make a name for themselves for five to 10 years," said Asen. "The groups all had the same idea but were unable to find sponsorship."
Though Asen was not the first to propose a Moroccan hip-hop festival, the project could not have been completed without him - as a Fulbright scholar, Asen was connected to the U.S. Embassy in Morocco.
He said that his main role initially was to find sponsorship for the festival. "We had a very difficult time getting the funding," he said.
Up until the start of the festival, budget cuts from the festival's two main sponsors plagued the event's organizers. But despite concerns about the festival's feasibility, it ran from May through June in 2005 - and "it exceeded our expectations," Needleman said.
Needleman joined Asen in coordinating the festival and documenting its progress, capturing the organization process on film and later using the footage to create their documentary.
Needleman, who studied creative writing at Brown and wrote features for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle for a year and a half, said her experience as a writer influenced her heavily as a filmmaker. As a features writer, she covered "whatever wacky thing was happening in Brooklyn." Needleman said working for a newspaper helped her develop as a writer and "taught me where to find stories."
She later attended the University of Southern California's Graduate Screenwriting Program, and graduated in 2006. She said film was a late pursuit for her.
"She has an exceptionally strong sense of voice and a joyous sense of humor that always finds its way on some level into her work," said Gale Nelson, assistant director of Brown's literary arts program and one of Needleman's close mentors during her time on campus.
"She was exceedingly serious about her writing," said Nelson, who also wrote a letter of recommendation for Needleman when she was applying to film school. "She has a peculiar - in the best sense of the word - point of view."
The subject of the film, a musical festival, reflects Asen's and Needleman's strong musical backgrounds. "I grew up in a musical family," Asen said. "Two of my grandparents were professional musicians."
But despite his early appreciation for music, "hip-hop was something I came to much later," Asen said. "In college my passion for hip-hop really matured." His senior thesis at Brown focused on translating the debut rap album of Notorious B.I.G. from English to French.
Coincidentally, Needleman also has a history of translating hip-hop music. While taking a class with Nelson on "potential literature" - a branch of literary theory that involves writing with self-imposed constraints - Needleman translated a hip-hop song into the style of a Shakespearean sonnet.
Both Needleman and Asen worked at Faunce House's Underground while at Brown. Needleman was a disc jockey, and Asen produced their weekly hip-hop shows. Needleman and Asen both said working together was a formative experience for both of them. "It gave us the first taste of a business partnership," Asen said.
With one film now securely under their belts, Needleman and Asen - who share producer and director credits on the film - said they are looking to branch out to other forms of film. "We're looking towards narrative and fiction," she said. "As an artist and as a filmmaker, it's where I want to go."
"Documentaries are really difficult," said Needleman, who works full-time for Rizz Productions in Los Angeles. "They don't get as much credit as they deserve."
Asen currently teaches English as a second language to students primarily of Middle Eastern descent at a Brooklyn, N.Y., public school. He said he enjoys his current job but hopes that in the next few years his career will focus more on film.
As for the future of Rizz Productions, Needleman and Asen are optimistic.
"We're hoping to open our official New York office this summer," Needleman said. She added that the two have come a long way since their more modest beginnings.
"It took a long time," Needleman added, "but I think we're finally here."
