Outhome shines a light on East Preston and its people

A short film about East Preston is aiming to shine a light on the community. Outhome premiered Tuesday night at the Halifax North Memorial Library.

Michael Earle, a rap artist known as Maje, is from the area and says he's proud of where he comes from and he wanted to show that in his movie.

"I think community pride is very big in the black community, like it's very, very big so it comes natural to me to want to do something like that," said Earle.

Music and film together

In 2015, Earle won Music Nova Scotia's Viola Desmond singer/songwriter contest — a $10,000 prize for music that creates awareness about civil rights and social justice.

For his film Outhome, Earle collaborated with director KeKe Beats to combine film and music.

It highlights inspirational young adults in East Preston, as well as young men from the community who have lost their lives to violence.

'Show love to one another'

Quentrell Provo is one of the young men featured in the film. Provo created the Stop the Violence movement in Halifax after his cousin, Kaylin Diggs, was killed in Halifax in 2012. Stop the Violence works to spread a message of peace and hope to communities across HRM.

"The people that we grew up with, let's not forget about them. Let's encourage each other and build each other up and show love to one another when we do something great as opposed to jealousy and envy," said Earle.

"A lot of communities have a certain amount of pride that maybe a lot of people didn't know East Preston had as well."