I Love Hip Hop in Morocco t-shirts seemed to be in every corner of the Roxie Theater. Well, to be exact it wasn’t “love” Hip Hop but a red heart in place of the word. And the proudest bearer of the message was Joshua Asen, one of the filmmakers of the short film by the same name.

There was a buzz in the air right before the premiere. The cinema was close to capacity and the crowd was a nice blend of ages as everyone anticipated the starting of the documentary. The filmmakers didn’t disappoint the crowd.

I Love Hip Hop in Morocco is a story about a few hip-hop artists wanting to perform and make their art known in a country that misunderstands their music. In this touching documentary we follow the artists as they set out to have the first hip-hop music festival in Morocco. By the end of the film, the rappers had captured the hearts of the audience in San Francisco. The film in French, Arabic, and some English kept the audience captivated with its cast of candid, fresh young artists.

The question that seemed to be on many minds after the film, was how? How did Joshua Asen, a Brooklyn elementary ESL teacher end up in Morocco making a film? According to Asen, he was visiting an ex-girlfriend in Morocco a few years ago. He started meeting hip-hop artists and as they interacted, he seemed to hear a theme in the conversations: they all wanted a chance to express their talent, and show it was a professional movement and not a fad as many were saying. He wasn’t intending to make a film; he was just fascinated by their story. It wasn’t until he shared the film with Jennifer Needleman a friend who was also studying screenwriting at USC that they decided they needed to put the story to film.

Joshua Asen obtained a Fulbright grant to study the effects of hip-hop music on Moroccan youth, and used his connection with the US Embassy in Morocco to help the hip-hop artists produce a music festival. In Q&A after the premiere, Asen mentioned that the film is being used in high schools and universities as a learning tool, a chance for Americans to see that the Moroccan youth are similar to American youth in many ways, and that hip hop is a voice for these youth.

I Love Hip Hop in Morocco will be showing at the Arab Film Festival in Los Angeles on November 3, 2007.