Now in its 21st year, Fast Track seeks to inject some much-needed capital and support into a diverse range of deserving independent film projects, both fiction and nonfiction. Taking place online December 4–6, the program is an intensive four-day film-financing market; participating filmmakers are connected with established financiers, production companies, agents, managers and other pros who can move their current projects forward. “This year’s Fast Track line-up of projects reflects the current landscape’s desire for bold, innovative and entertaining films. We’re thrilled to introduce the dynamic and talented filmmakers behind these films at this year’s finance market,” says Angela Lee, Director of Artist Development. Here art the 16 projects—and 41 filmmakers!—presently careening toward IRL face time with some of Hollywood’s most important power players…
FICTION TRACK
Writer/Director: Shireen Alihaji Producer: Jaime Ballesteros Logline: In the wake of 9/11, a First-Gen Muslim teenager discovers her mother’s cassette tapes. As music unlocks memories, she discovers who she is. Writer/Director: Tulica Singh Producers: Kim Bailey, Isabel Marden Logline: In 17th century colonial America, an outcast witch and a Puritan It-girl fall in love amongst the chaos of their settlement’s first witch trial. Writer/Director: Nihaarika Negi Producers: Nancy Degnan, Tobias Reeuwijk Logline: In 1950s, India—a sadomasochist English Madame has raised two tribal sisters to be her servants on a withering colonial estate. But the arrival of Madame’s latest lover—a singer/shaman scholar—changes the alchemy of the estate, as the sisters slowly transgress—reclaiming their wild, mystical selves. Writer/Director: Jing Ai Ng Producer: Elizabeth Glass Logline: In the art world of Miami, siblings Raymond and Coco Zhang run a profitable forgery ring. When the Zhangs cross paths with millionaire Holden Lawrence, they are coerced into creating counterfeit masterpieces as a front for his old American family’s art collection. Meanwhile, FBI Art Crimes agent Emily Lee moves to South Florida and attempts to find the culprits behind a new string of forgeries. Writer/Co-Director: Gabe Gabriel Co-Director: Ian Gabriel Producer: Shant Joshi Logline: An outrageous white-passing trans femme disco-dancing granny in Apartheid South Africa befriends a deceased gay boy’s affluent and conservative mother, in an attempt to crib funds for his community in dire need of assistance due to the rising HIV/AIDS crisis—unaware the grieving woman is on a crusade to enact revenge on the man she imagines infected her son. Writer/Director: Sonia Malfa Writer/Producer: Trae Harris Producer: Nikkia Moulterie Logline: Sunni, an eclectic young poet, hits the road from Baltimore to the American West to claim her estranged father’s inheritance. But her mother, Mo, determined to regain control and maintain long kept family secrets sets off a cross country chase to stop her. Writer/Director: Janey Feingold Producers: Matthew Cooper, Talia Light Rake Logline: On the eve of her 20-year high school reunion, Mallie Adams accidentally time travels back to the year 2005 to relive her senior year of high school. In order to find her way home to 2025, Mallie must confront her queer identity and risk it all for a second chance with the girl that got away. Writer/Director: Cole Smith Producer: Nicholas Nyhof Logline: Based on the true incident, an Airman’s mistake in a nuclear missile silo sparks a desperate race against time to stop a leak before the warhead explodes and kills millions. (Silo is also the recipient of Sloan Fast Track Grant, a $20,000 grant t0 support the production of a project exploring themes of science and technology or characters engaging with science and technology in engaging and innovative ways.) Writer/Director: Mary Dauterman Producer: Lexi Tannenholtz Logline: Two Gap employees discover a bag of cash and a gun in the dressing room at the top of their shift on Black Friday. All hell breaks loose. Writer/Director: Adam Meeks Producers: Brad Becker-Parton, Faye Tsakas Logline: Mandated to a drug court recovery program, a young man in rural Ohio tests the boundaries of his sobriety.
NONFICTION TRACK
Directors: Nicolas Lopez-Alegria, Zach Zuckerman Producers: Dustin Nakao-Haider, Steffie van Rhee Logline: Before a Commander leaves Earth to lead a new era of spaceflight, his son asks him to explore the unresolved space between them. Director: Travis Gutiérrez Senger Producer: Sabrina Coulston Logline: The story of the Chicano art collective, ASCO (1972-1987) and their defiant and visionary approach to art-making. Through a genre-defying style, the film celebrates this revolutionary group. Director: Haohao Yan Producer: Guo Guo Logline: A coming of golden-age story following a group of Chinese female immigrants in the US trying to get a shot at America’s Got Talent and eventually finding themselves in later life through dancing and creativity. Director: Roy Cohen Producer: Serge Gordey Logline: As the Middle East is irrevocably changing around him, an Israeli man is compelled to deal with the long-forgotten violent death of his Palestinian childhood friend and fellow peace activist. Can he reclaim the dream they had once shared? (Director Roy Cohen is the recipient of the $10,000 Cayton-Goldrich Family Foundation Fellowship, awarded to a Jewish filmmaker accepted into a Film Independent Artist Development Program. ) Director: Marjolaine Grappe Producer: Amanda Pike Logline: Logline unavailable Directors: Logan Rozos, Lexie Bean Producer: Drew Dickler Logline: More than 50% of transgender boys have attempted suicide. Through two life stories, directors Lexie and Logan unravel why their community is particularly vulnerable to living and dying quietly. Industry participants include (deep breath, cue the Micro Machines guy): 30West, A24, ABC News Studios, America Reframed, Anonymous Content, Astrakan Film AB, Bankside Films, Berlinale Co-Production Market, Black Bear Pictures, Bleeker Street, Brave Jayne Films, Bright West, Cinema Inutile, Chrystie Street Casting, Cinetic Media, Confluential Films, Drafthouse Films, Dragonfly Films, Emily Schweber Casting, Family Owned, Fat City, FirstGen, Giant Pictures, Hot Docs, Hulu, Hyde Park Entertainment, Impact Partners, Independent Artist Group, Inspect Element LLC, ITVS, Kindred Spirit, Ley Line Entertainment, LinLay Productions, Lionsgate, Los Angeles Media Fund, Mandalay Pictures, Marginal MediaWorks, Monkeypaw Productions, Motto Pictures, Mosaic, MUBI, National Geographic, NEON, Netflix, Oscilloscope, Participant, PASTEL, POV, Pulse Films, Rhino Films, River Road Entertainment, Roadside Attractions, Searchlight Pictures, SFFILM, Sons of Rigor, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Submarine, Sundance Institute, T-Street, Topic Studios, Tribeca Enterprises, UTA, The Gersh Agency, Untitled Entertainment, UTA, Venice International Film Festival, Visit Films, WME, Women In Film, XTR and XYZ Films … phew! Other notable filmmakers who have participated in the program include Ana Lily Amirpour, Sean Baker, James Ponsoldt, Tina Mabry, Lana Wilson and Chloé Zhao.
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