For filmmakers eager to develop partnerships for the financing, production and distribution of their projects, no better forum exists for meeting potential champions and collaborators than Film Independent’s Fast Track Film Finance Market—an intensive, four-day film financing marketplace connecting a select group of participants with established financiers, production companies, agents, managers and other industry pros with to power to make things happen. Already underway, this year’s Fast Track program boasts 15 individual projects—10 narrative features and five documentary features—covering a wide range of genre and subject matter, from MMA to music to the celestial status of Pluto. [quote] Recent Fast Track projects of note include Bing Liu’s 2019 Oscar-nominated doc Minding the Gap; Hikari’s 2019 Berlinale-winning 27 Seconds; Kirill Mikhanovsky’s Film Independent Spirit Award winner Give Me Liberty; Sundance favorite Nancy (Christina Choe); SXSW winner JINN (Nijla Mumin); and Tribeca winner United Skates (Dyana Winkler, Tina Brown). Other success stories include Songs My Brothers Taught Me (Chloé Zhao), Natural Selection (Robbie Pickering), Frozen River (Courtney Hunt) and more.
FICTION PROJECTS
Here are this year’s participating narrative feature projects:
Title: Alien Kulture Writer/Director: Iesh Thapar Producer: Sarah Seulki Oh Logline: A British Indian youngster growing up during Margaret Thatcher’s racially divided Britain, battles the conservative trappings of society and his insular-minded older brother, in order to pursue his musical dreams and unlikely punk-rock ambitions.
Title: Angel in Retrograde Writer/Director: Miguel Angel Caballero Producer: Ornella Jaramillo Logline: After being diagnosed with retrograde amnesia, Angel—a husband and father—struggles to remember who he is. As memories of repressed feelings return, he realizes he’s been living his entire life in the closet, leading to an encounter with Joshua, and estranged high school friend he was once in love with.
Title: The Cow of Queens Writer/Director: Kate Marks Producers: Krista Parris, Neda Armian Logline: A dying dad (think Don Quixote) and his trusty daughter go on one last wild adventure to save a runaway cow from the Butcher, chasing it through the streets of Queens.
Title: Mama D’Lo Writer/Director: Lauren Marsden Producer: Robert Maylor Logline: Deep in the Trinidadian jungle, a river is being choked to death by developers, and an old curse must be released in order to stop them.
Title: The Mesopotamian Writer/Director: Esra Saydam Producers: Gerry Kim, Alvaro R. Valente Logline: Under the moons of Ramadan, a Muslim EMT works the chaotic fringes of NYC with her veteran partner. A chance encounter will spark an affair that will upend her world.
Title: Moving Bangladesh Writer/Director: Nuhash Humayun Producers: Arifur Rahman, Bijon Imtiaz Logline: Sick of being stuck in traffic—and in life—a struggling middle-class Bangladeshi entrepreneur creates a motorcycle-based ridesharing app that may change transport in developing cities, such as Dhaka, forever but must first overcome his family’s skepticism and a hostile political environment.
Title: Our Last Summer Writer/Co-Director: Gary Jaffe Co-Director: Katie Ennis Producer: Emily McCann Lesser Logline: Westchester, Summer 1991. When his gay uncle Ira returns home dying of complications from HIV/AIDS, closeted teenager Daniel Rosen travels a bumpy road to self-acceptance and first love.
Title: The Plutonians Writer/Director: Tim Delaney Producer: Shao Min Chew Chia Logline: When the redefinition of “planet” threatens to demote Pluto, an insecure Pluto expert dives into a chaotic astronomy conference to save it, fearing irrelevancy without Pluto’s reputation validating his work.
Title: Wild Animal Writer/Director: Joseph Marconi Producer: Lysette Urus Logline: A young, transient MMA fighter is forces to choose between court-ordered Equine Therapy and the familiar path of self-destruction, after a traumatic brain injury threatens her promising career.
Title: Zagorohorror Writer/Director: Cat Papadimitriou Producer: Meaghan “Wilbs” Wilbur Logline: Eva thinks her cousin Georgia’s views on motherhood are regressive. Georgia thinks Eva’s feminism is playing with fire. Their grandmother’s remote mountain village in Greece thinks they’re both ripe for the picking.
The Sloan Fast Track Grant, a $20,000 grant to support the production of a project that explores science and technology themes or characters in engaging and innovative ways, is awarded to Moving Bangladesh written and directed by Nuhash Humayun and produced by Arifur Rahman and Bijon Imtiaz. “It’s an honor,” says Nuhash Humayun. “A heartfelt underdog story about a startup that goes from Dhaka’s alleys to Silicon Valley, Moving Bangladesh captures how solving a local problem can become a global phenomenon.”
NONFICTION PROJECTS
Now, here are this year’s participating documentary feature projects:
Title: Dusty & Stones Director: Jesse Rudoy Producer: Melissa Adeyemo Logline: Two struggling country music singers from the tiny African Kingdom of Swaziland journey to Texas determined to win big at a battle of the bands and turn their careers around.
Title: Joybubbles Director/Producer: Rachael Morrison Producer: Sarah Winshall Logline: Joybubbles tells the amazing story of Joe Engressia (aka Joybubbles), a blind genius who discovered he could hack into the analogue telephone system by whistling a magic tone.
Title: Nurse Unseen Director: Michele Josue Producers: Carlo Velayo, Jhett Tolentino Logline: Nurse Unseen explores the little-known history and humanity of the unsung Filipino nurses risking their lives on the frontlines of a pandemic, thousands of miles from home.
Title: Philly on Fire Director: Ross Rockow Producers: Shannon Kring, Tommy Walker Logline: Told by those who lived it, Philly on Fire is the unknown story of May 13, 1985, when Philadelphia—the Birthplace of America and the City of Brotherly Love—became the City that Bombed Itself.
Title: Untitled Sam and Omar Project Director: Nadav Kurtz Producer: Diane Quan Logline: Omar Bader was only eight years old when his father Sam, a film producer, was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Now 23 and struggling under the weight of his father’s long absence, Sam attempts to help Omar summon the courage to pursue his artistic dreams through a creative collaboration.
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