Ya'ke Smith Retrospective

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Hope’s War
After returning home from Iraq, a U.S. soldier struggles to adapt back to everyday life, but brutal visions of war threaten to destroy him.

Katrina’s Son
When a young boy loses his grandmother during Hurricane Katrina, he travels to San Antonio, Texas, in search of the mother who abandoned him years earlier.

Dawn
After several prison stints, dawn is determined to right her wrongs, but the years locked away may have damaged her.
The Beginning and End of Everything (Trailer)
Angelita returns home from prison in hopes of reuniting with the young child she left behind. When she discovers the child is nowhere to be found, she goes on a quest to find the baby, her hope, and her reason for living.

Brother

Contributors

Ya'ke Smith

Ya'Ke made his first film at the age of 15, while a student at Sam Houston High School in his native San Antonio, Texas and has yet to look back. His films have screened at The Cannes International Film Festival, The Pan African Film and Arts Festival, The Sedicorto International Film Festival Forli and The Los Angeles Shorts Film Festival, to name a few.

His short Hope's War was the recipient of the Director's Guild of America Student Film Award, was officially selected to screen at the Cannes Film Festival as part of Kodak's Emerging Filmmaker Showcase, broadcast nationally on Showtime Television's Black Filmmaker Showcase and was a finalist of BETJ's The Best Shorts Film Competition. His latest film, The Second Coming, was nominated for a Student Academy Award and also won the HBO Short Film Award at the American Black Film Festival.

Ya'Ke graduated with his Master's of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin's film program, where he now lectures.