By Robert Goldrich

After two years of being curtailed by the pandemic, the Sundance Film Festival looks to return to Park City in full force this month (January 19-29) with an ambitious lineup of screenings and in-person events–just as SHOOT’s New Directors Showcase returned in November 2022 to the DGA Theatre in NYC with the screening of its Showcase Reel, an In The Director’s Chair session featuring Lauren Greenfield of INSTITUTE, and panel discussions.

Beyond getting back to face-to-face interaction, there’s another parallel of sorts between this year’s Sundance proceedings and SHOOT’s New Directors Showcase as several alums of the latter have feature films slated for debut at the former.

Among them are Eddie Alcazar (SHOOT’s 2012 New Directors Showcase), A.V. Rockwell (2017 NDS) and Charlotte Regan (2019 NDS). Meanwhile, making the cut at this year’s Sundance shorts competition is director Crystal Kayiza (2019 NDS).

Here’s a rundown of the films they are bringing to Sundance: 

• A Thousand and One / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: A.V. Rockwell, Producers: Eddie Vaisman, Julia Lebedev, Lena Waithe, Rishi Rajani, Brad Weston) — Convinced it’s one last, necessary crime on the path to redemption, unapologetic and free-spirited Inez kidnaps 6-year-old Terry from the foster care system. Holding on to their secret and each other, mother and son set out to reclaim their sense of home, identity, and stability in New York City. Cast: Teyana Taylor, Will Catlett, Josiah Cross, Aven Courtney, Aaron Kingsley Adetola. World Premiere. 
• Divinity / U.S.A. (Director, Screenwriter and Producer: Eddie Alcazar, Exec Producer: Steven Soderbergh) — Two mysterious brothers abduct a mogul during his quest for immortality. Meanwhile, a seductive woman helps them launch a journey of self-discovery. Cast: Stephen Dorff, Moises Arias, Jason Genao, Karrueche Tran, Bella Thorne, Scott Bakula. World Premiere. Fiction. 
• Scrapper / U.K. (Director and Screenwriter: Charlotte Regan, Producer: Theo Barrowclough) — Georgie is a dreamy 12-year-old girl who lives happily alone in her London flat, filling it with magic. Out of nowhere, her estranged father turns up and forces her to confront reality. Cast: Harris Dickinson, Lola Campbell, Alin Uzun, Ambreen Razia, Olivia Brady, Aylin Tezel. World Premiere. 

And the alluded to short film set to screen at Sundance is:

• Rest Stop / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Crystal Kayiza, Producers: Jalena Keane-Lee, Brit Fryer) — On a bus ride from New York to Oklahoma, Meyi, a young Ugandan-American girl, realizes her place in the world through her mother’s ambitious effort to reunite their family. Cast: Leeanna E. Tushabe, Alicia Basiima, Khalid Semakula, Robert Wanyama, Margaret Bisase, Olivia Nantongo.

Rockwell’s A Thousand and One is in Sundance’s U.S. Dramatic Competition. Regan’s Scrapper made the cut in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Alcazar’s Divinity will screen in Sundance’s NEXT showcase. And Kayiza’s Rest Stop is in the U.S. Fiction Short Films lineup.

Rockwell, Alcazar, Regan and Kayiza are not strangers to Sundance. Each has had prior work that made the festival cut. Regan screened her short film Fry-Up at Sundance in 2018. Rockwell brought her short Feathers to the festival in 2019. Alcazar directed the short Fuckkkyouuu which made the Sundance shorts cut in 2016. (Alcazar was also a producer on Kuso, a Flying Lotus-directed feature which screened at Sundance in 2017.) And director Kayiza has had two prior short films selected for Sundance–Edgecombe in 2019 and See You Next Time in 2020. Edgecombe earned her a slot in SHOOT’s 2019 New Directors Showcase.

All four directors have production company affiliations in the commercialmaking/branded content space: Alcazar is with Chromista; Kayiza is repped by Little Minx; Regan is on the Knucklehead roster; and Rockwell is handled in the U.K. by Somesuch.

SHOOT caught up with directors Alcazar and Kayiza to shed further light on their latest Sundance selections.

Eddie Alcazar
Sundance’s Next program is for visionary works set apart by an innovative, forward-thinking approach to storytelling. Divinity is one of nine films earning Next distinction this year at the festival. Alcazar said he’s honored to be in such company, part of “a specific section that focuses on something that is out of the ordinary. That’s what I’m in film for–to explore and discover new ways of telling stories.”

Rather than 30 or more continuous days of lensing, Divinity was made over the course of seven separate shoots spread out over an extended stretch of time. Multiple cinematographers were deployed as Alcazar grappled with the themes/topics  of rebirth, immortality and the meaning of life and death. He cast Stephen Dorff as a tech mogul who creates a chemical called Divinity which enables people to live forever. It’s not quite perfected as Divinity creates physical but not mental longevity. The chemical is a work in progress for Dorff’s character as are the implications of living forever, triggering weighty questions and soul searching. However, Alcazar brought some lightheartedness to the story at the same time, describing it in genre language as sci-fi, horror, drama, thriller and suspense “but also loose in its seriousness.”

Helping him to fashion and craft the feature was noted filmmaker Stephen Soderbergh who served as an executive producer on Divinity. It was on a prior feature he directed titled Perfect that Alcazar first hooked up with Soderbergh. An actor and friend of initially connected Alcazar with Soderbergh. Alcazar had been seeking different opinions on a rough cut of Perfect and Soderbergh consented to give it a look-see. After viewing that rendition, Soderbergh came to meet Alcazar in person, providing help and feedback. “He came on board that film after it was pretty much done,” recalled Alcazar. “It was cool to next have him involved from the ground up [on Divinity].” Alcazar added that Soderbergh also provided some funding support for Divinity while being hands-off yet very open to helping explore different approaches. “Our relationship grew from Perfect,” said Alcazar who greatly values the trusting bond he has with Soderbergh.

Alcazar was surprised that Sundance selected Divinity in that he could only provide the festival with a rough cut. “I was thinking I’d have this movie ready by Cannes. Then Sundance picked it and I had to get moving.” At press time, Alcazar was working to finish the video and audio post in time for Sundance.

Once he’s done that and soaks in his latest Sundance experience, Alcazar plans to reflect on the way this film was shot, which entailed collaboration with five cinematographers, the prime ones being Danny Hiele along with Matthias Koenigswieser. While on one hand you lose some continuity by working with varied DPs over a year or more, there’s something to be said, observed Alcazar, for working with a lot of different creative minds who are all able to contribute to the film. And instead of being confined to footage shot over a month or so, you can rethink and reevaluate the imagery you need, enabling a project to evolve visually.

Alcazar has a collaborative track record with Hiele, including on the short film The Vandal for which Darren Aronofsky served as an executive producer. In fact Aronofsky introduced The Vandal last year for its world premiere screening at the Cannes Film Festival. (Aronofsky is also a founder of Chromista, the production company that handles director Alcazar for spots and branded entertainment.) 

As for DP Koenigswieser, he shot the aforementioned Perfect for Alcazar.

The director’s filmography also includes the HBO documentary feature Tapia, which was executive produced by 50 Cent.

Crystal Kayiza
While Rest Stop is the third short Kayiza has brought to Sundance, it is the first one that’s scripted. Both Edgecombe and See Your Next Time were documentary shorts. 

However, all three films have a common bond, reflecting Kayiza’s penchant for delving into and shedding light on the human condition. 

Edgecombe introduced us to North Carolina’s impoverished rural Edgecombe County, focusing on an African American on probation who works at an Applebee’s restaurant, and expanding with a look at his larger community. Meanwhile See You Next Time  took us to a nail salon and spa in Brooklyn, NY, and the relationship between a nail tech named Judy, a Fujianese immigrant, and Arriana, a Black woman who is a counselor and Judy’s loyal client. See You Next Time gives us a window into the relationship between women of color and how they see each other and themselves.

Now Rest Stop, directed and written by Kayiza, connects us with a young Ugandan-American girl and her mother as they look to reunite with their father/husband and siblings whom they’ve been separated from for some time. Kayiza, whose family is Ugandan, shared that the short explores that moment as a kid when you realize your parents are human beings and have a presence in the world that goes beyond being your caretakers. Kayiza described Rest Stop as “a premature coming-of-age story.”

Kayiza assembled an entirely Ugandan cast of first-time actors for Rest Stop. The director noted that she began writing the script at about the same age that her mom was when making the move to the U.S. This underscored for Kayiza the importance of her familial connections and in particular the relationship with her mom.

The transition from documentary to scripted fare was not all that jarring for Kayiza. “My process is my process,” she observed, noting that whether a project is scripted or nonfiction, her instinct is to be “collaborative and build community on set,” forming what amounts to being a family of sorts in the pursuit of filmmaking. Having Rest Stop selected for screening at Sundance, she continued, is a celebration of this team and how they came together on the project.

Rest Stop made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival with Sundance now in the offing. Kayiza loves the opportunity to see how an audience responds to a film. Making her cherish the experience even more is the fact that Rest Stop was made during the pandemic, making her feel especially blessed that it can be shown to festival goers in person. 

“When making this film, we were definitely unsure what state the world was going to be in,” said Kayiza. Just being able to have people get together to see a film, she affirmed, is cause for celebration.

While she plans on continuing her filmmaking spanning documentary and nonfiction, Kayiza also hopes to make more inroads into the commercialmaking/branded content arena via Little Minx, the production company headed by Rhea Scott.  Kayiza sees that space as “a great opportunity to expand and further define my voice as a filmmaker.”

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