Five SFFILM-Supported Films Headed to Sundance 2018

It’s a particularly exciting time of year for the SFFILM Makers team, as several of the films they’ve helped shepherd into existence are on their way to the Sundance Film Festival for their premieres. This year, five projects supported by SFFILM grants and development services will be going to Park City for their big snowy debuts, beginning their journey to reach audiences worldwide.

“These five SFFILM-supported films represent exciting new voices in independent film — from uninhibited bold artistry to nuanced unpacking of complicated systemic issues of our time — and we’re thrilled that they are premiering this week,” said Caroline von Kühn, SFFILM Director of Artist Development. “SFFILM has been championing Boots Riley’s move into filmmaking for some time, and it’s a dream to see such an ambitious, imaginative film come to fruition with a premiere at Sundance. It’s an especially exciting year for Bay Area filmmaking, with both Sorry to Bother You and Blindspotting made in Oakland just last summer. The impressive talent shown by the first-time filmmakers here and the diversity of voices telling these stories are particularly exciting for us as we head into what’s looking like a great year for film ahead.”

SFFILM–SUPPORTED PROJECTS AT SUNDANCE 2018

Blindspotting
US Dramatic Competition — Day One
Carlos Lopez Estrada, director; Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs, writers; Keith Calder, Jess Calder, Rafael Casal, and Daveed Diggs, producers

— 2017 SFFILM / Time Warner Foundation Grant —

Collin is trying to make it through his final days of probation for an infamous arrest he can’t wait to put behind him. Always by his side is his fast-talking childhood bestie, Miles, who has a knack for finding trouble. They grew up together in the notoriously rough Oakland, a.k.a. “The Town,” which has become the new trendy place to live in the rapidly gentrifying Bay Area. But when Collin’s chance for a fresh start is interrupted by a life-changing missed curfew, his friendship with Miles is forced out of its comfortable buddy-comedy existence, and the Bay boys are set on a spiraling collision course with each other. (Sundance Film Festival)

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Hale County This Morning, This Evening
US Documentary Competition
RaMell Ross, director; Maya Krinsky, writer; Joslyn Barnes, RaMell Ross, Su Kim, producers

— 2017 Documentary Film Fund grant for post-production —

How does one express the reality of individuals whose public image, lives, and humanity originate in exploitation? Photographer and filmmaker RaMell Ross employs the integrity of nonfiction filmmaking and the currency of stereotypical imagery to fill in the gaps between individual black male icons. Hale County This Morning, This Evening is a lyrical innovation to the form of portraiture that boldly ruptures racist aesthetic frameworks that have historically constricted the expression of African American men on film. (Sundance Film Festival)

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Monsters and Men
US Dramatic Competition
Reinaldo Marcus Green, director/writer; Elizabeth Lodge Stepp, Josh Penn, Eddie Vaisman, Julia Lebedev, and Luca Borghese, producers

— Fall 2017 SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant for post-production —

One night, in front of a bodega in Brooklyn’s Bed–Stuy neighborhood, Manny Ortega witnesses a white police officer wrongfully gun down a neighborhood street hustler, and Manny films the incident on his phone. Now he’s faced with a dilemma: release the video and bring unwanted exposure to himself and his family, or keep the video private and be complicit in the injustice? (Sundance Film Festival)

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Sorry to Bother You
US Dramatic Competition
Boots Riley, director/writer; Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker, Charles King, George Rush, Jonathan Duffy, Kelly Williams, producers

— Spring 2015 SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant for screenwriting — 
— Spring 2016 SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant for packaging — 
— Spring 2017 SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant for production — 
— Fall 2017 SFFILM / Rainin Post-production loan —

Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield), a 30-something black telemarketer with self-esteem issues, discovers a magical selling power living inside of him. Suddenly he’s rising up the ranks to the elite team of his company, which sells heinous products and services. The upswing in Cassius’s career raises serious red flags with his brilliant girlfriend, Detroit (Tessa Thompson), a sign-twirling gallery artist who is secretly a part of a Banksy-style collective called Left Eye. But the unimaginable hits the fan when Cassius meets the company’s cocaine-snorting, orgy-hosting, obnoxious, and relentlessly optimistic CEO, Steve Lift (Armie Hammer). (Sundance Film Festival)

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

We The Animals
NEXT
Jeremiah Zagar, director; Daniel Kitrosser and Jeremiah Zagar, writers; Jeremy Yaches, Christina D. King, Andrew Goldman, and Paul Mezey, producers

— Spring 2017 SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant for post-production —

Us three, brothers, kings inseparable. Manny, Joel, and Jonah tear their way through childhood. Their Ma and Paps have a volatile love that makes and unmakes the family many times over, leaving the boys fending for themselves. As their parents rip at one another, Manny and Joel ultimately harden and grow into versions of their father. With the triumvirate fractured, Jonah — the youngest, the dreamer — becomes increasingly aware of his desperate need to escape. Driven to the edge, Jonah embraces an imagined world all his own. (Sundance Film Festival)

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Other SFFILM–supported films that have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in recent years include Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie and the Boxer; Peter Bratt’s Dolores; Peter Nicks’s The Force, which won the festival’s Directing Award for U.S. Documentary in 2017; Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, which went on to win both the festival’s Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the narrative category in 2013; Kat Candler’s Hellion; Jacob Kornbluth’s Inequality for All; Ira Sach’s Love is Strange; Gillian Robespierre’s Obvious Child; Jesse Moss’s The Overnighters; Geremy Jasper’s Patti Cake$; and Alex Smith and Andrew Smith’s Walking Out, among others.

Find out more about the grants, residencies, and fellowships offered by SFFILM Makers here.