A Story from Indianapolis: 'Keys to the Streets' Premieres

A new urban crime drama, "Keys To The Streets," has premiered in Indianapolis. The film takes audiences on a journey through the city's gritty underbelly.

"You tryna overcome the obstacles that's placed in front of you. You tryna move in the streets. Stay alive and survive," Director Corey Sanders said.

Sanders describes his movie as a “dope opera” – a play on soap opera. He aims to create a positive impact through his work, saying "We making dope movies and music and stuff like that. This is for the street. We’re taking a negative and turning it into a positive."

Over 50 Indy-based artists collaborated on the film, contributing their skills in directing, acting, filming, composing, and more.

"This is a Naptown story. Naptown music. Naptown actors," Sanders said.

The film is based on a book series called "We Got the Keys to the Streets" by Courtney Brown, who is also the screenwriter for the movie. The story centers around three childhood friends and their struggles in street life.

"It’s about three childhood friends. The story gets gritty because there’s this thing called street life. Basically, you got people who get in. It’s very hard to get out. We wanna emphasize what the pitfalls are of this life called street life. We tryna wean people away from the streets," Brown said.

The main character, Raja, is a leader trying to unlock a better future for himself and his friends.

"He’s a leader for his tribe. His hope is to get his guys out of a bad situation into a better situation," Jenkins Reese said.

Actor Nicky Neptune hopes audiences will learn something from the film, saying "Everything that you do, you wanna make sure you think about first and know the consequences for what you doing."