about the filmmakers

Kathleen Kiley,  co-director and co-producer has been a journalist for over 20 years. She met Bryon Breeze, Half a Soulja, Jr. while studying new media at New York University’s ITP graduate program, a nationally recognized incubator for digital media, multimedia and telecommunications. Inspired by (ITP Chair) Red Burns’ innovate approach to using technology, Kathleen decided to tell Soulja’s story with the new story-telling techniques she was learning.

Michael Patrick Kelly, co-director and producer, is founder of Aquapio Films Ltd. He is the director and producer of the feature film Isn’t It Delicious, staring Kathleen Chalfant, Keir Dullea and Alice Ripley, which won several film festival awards and was distributed on platforms including Netflix and Hulu.

His other work includes the documentary film “Operation Lysistrata,” which captures the drama leading up to the imminent preemptive war on Iraq and provides an intimate behind-the-scenes look at how two women transform their individual aspirations for peace into a global movement. He completed a documentary about the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the economic aftermath for German TV called “Behind the Wall.”

His most recent full-length documentary Motion in Motion, about jazz musician Paul Motion, has won numerous awards. 

Below is the mural painted by Jay Sayers on a vacant wall in the Bronx, NY. It’s the story of Soulja coming from D.C. to New York City to following a dream of recording music and breaking into the music industry.