ARTE Distribution

Louis Armstrong is Chantz's (a 12-year-old Afro-American) and his mother's preferred role-model - an emblem of Black success. So it's settled: Chantz is to be a musician, dancer and performer! He also happens to be exceptionally gifted...

Chantz is a 12-year-old Afro-American. His parents have split up and he comes from a socially-disadvantaged community in Mississippi. Scarcely the most promising start in life. But Chantz is the embodiment of his mother's hopes and dreams.
The director of the film spent three years shadowing Chantz and his mother Glinda - a slightly disturbing couple bound together by love and a shared determination to make their dreams come true.
They lead an unsettled life, divided between the Los Angeles motel where they live and the street where Chantz gives his performances (their main source of income). But there are milestones along the way - classes at the showbiz school Chantz enrols at, occasional meetings with professional musicians in jazz clubs, engagements on shows, a visit to Glinda's family in Mississippi, the first casting session for a film about Armstrong, the beginnings of Chantz's first romantic involvement, and so on.
Gradually, Chantz takes charge of his own image, disentangling his own plans from his mother's fantasies, discovering his musical and showbiz preferences, and working out what he wants from a future in which he can be himself, not just a reincarnation of Louis Armstrong.