Exclusive: Music Box Films has acquired drama Mountains, the debut feature from Miami-based Haitian-American co-writer-director Monica Sorelle, who took home the Someone to Watch prize at this year’s Independent Spirit Awards.
Music Box will kick off the release with a hometown theatrical premiere on August 16 in Miami, followed by New York on August 23. A national expansion in key markets will follow.
The film looks at the intergenerational frictions within a Haitian-American family in a rapidly gentrifying Miami, exploring the desires and conflicts of three main characters: Xavier (Atibon Nazaire), a middle-aged demolition worker, his wife Esperance (Sheila Anozier), who works as both a seamstress and crossing guard, and their adult son Junior (Chris Renois), who finds himself caught between two cultures as he pursues a clandestine career in stand-up comedy.
Mountains premiered at Tribeca Festival, where it received a Special Jury Mention for Best Narrative Film. It also won...
Music Box will kick off the release with a hometown theatrical premiere on August 16 in Miami, followed by New York on August 23. A national expansion in key markets will follow.
The film looks at the intergenerational frictions within a Haitian-American family in a rapidly gentrifying Miami, exploring the desires and conflicts of three main characters: Xavier (Atibon Nazaire), a middle-aged demolition worker, his wife Esperance (Sheila Anozier), who works as both a seamstress and crossing guard, and their adult son Junior (Chris Renois), who finds himself caught between two cultures as he pursues a clandestine career in stand-up comedy.
Mountains premiered at Tribeca Festival, where it received a Special Jury Mention for Best Narrative Film. It also won...
- 6/3/2024
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Fusion Entertainment has signed Monica Sorelle (director and co-writer), Robert Colom (co-writer and producer) and Chris Renois (actor), the trio behind the acclaimed independent drama Mountains.
The film premiered at Tribeca Festival, where it received Special Jury Mention for Best Narrative Film. It also won the audience award at BlackStar and was an official selection at the Toronto Film Festival. Mountains has garnered glowing reviews, with Deadline calling it “Affecting and meditative… An enormously impressive feature debut. It will have its Los Angeles premiere at the upcoming AFI Fest.
Mountains marks the debut feature of Miami-based Haitian-American writer-director Sorelle, also a producer and visual artist who worked in the casting department on Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight. The film is a loving look at the intergenerational frictions within a Haitian-American family in a rapidly gentrifying Miami, exploring the desires and conflicts of three main characters: Xavier (Atibon Nazaire), a middle-aged demolition...
The film premiered at Tribeca Festival, where it received Special Jury Mention for Best Narrative Film. It also won the audience award at BlackStar and was an official selection at the Toronto Film Festival. Mountains has garnered glowing reviews, with Deadline calling it “Affecting and meditative… An enormously impressive feature debut. It will have its Los Angeles premiere at the upcoming AFI Fest.
Mountains marks the debut feature of Miami-based Haitian-American writer-director Sorelle, also a producer and visual artist who worked in the casting department on Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight. The film is a loving look at the intergenerational frictions within a Haitian-American family in a rapidly gentrifying Miami, exploring the desires and conflicts of three main characters: Xavier (Atibon Nazaire), a middle-aged demolition...
- 10/23/2023
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Watching Mountains, which just made its international debut as part of the Toronto Film Festival’s Centerpiece program, I could not help but think of two other landmark films it seems to recall in its own way. One was 2019’s The Last Black Man In San Francisco, a remarkable story of gentrification and its effect on those being edged out of their home that starred Jimmie Falls and launched the career of Jonathan Majors. The other was the 1960 film version of Lorraine Hansberry’s oft-performed A Raisin in the Sun in which Sidney Poitier as Walter Lee Younger played a struggling husband, son and father with a dream for a new house and a better life for his family.
Put them together and you have the bones of what makes director and co-writer (with producer Robert Colom) Monica Sorelle’s affecting and meditative debut feature so powerful. The film had...
Put them together and you have the bones of what makes director and co-writer (with producer Robert Colom) Monica Sorelle’s affecting and meditative debut feature so powerful. The film had...
- 9/16/2023
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
In her directorial debut Mountains, Monica Sorelle approaches the story of a Haitian family confronting gentrification with a delicate and discerning eye. The languidly paced feature observes Xavier (Atibon Nazaire), a demolition worker contemplating buying a better home while navigating the implications of his Miami neighborhood’s changing dynamics.
Xavier, his wife Esperance (Sheila Anozier) and their adult son Junior (Chris Renois) live in Little Haiti, a vibrant enclave in Miami that’s home to tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants. The neighborhood’s name is credited to Viter Juste, an activist who moved to Miami from Brooklyn in 1973 and convinced other Haitians to join him. The area’s proximity to both the beach and the city’s downtown made it attractive. Today, its protection from major flooding — it’s 10 feet above sea level — has caught the eye of developers and real estate agents. They’ve marketed Little Haiti as...
Xavier, his wife Esperance (Sheila Anozier) and their adult son Junior (Chris Renois) live in Little Haiti, a vibrant enclave in Miami that’s home to tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants. The neighborhood’s name is credited to Viter Juste, an activist who moved to Miami from Brooklyn in 1973 and convinced other Haitians to join him. The area’s proximity to both the beach and the city’s downtown made it attractive. Today, its protection from major flooding — it’s 10 feet above sea level — has caught the eye of developers and real estate agents. They’ve marketed Little Haiti as...
- 6/16/2023
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It is the debut from Haitian-American filmmaker Monica Sorelle.
UK-France sales outfit Alief has acquired international sales for Haitian-American filmmaker Monica Sorelle’s debut feature Mountains, ahead of its world premiere at Tribeca next month.
The drama, which will play in the US narrative competition, follows a family of Haitian migrants living in Miami, grappling with ambitions for a better life and a college dropout son, who is secretly harbouring a dream to be a stand-up comedian.
It is produced by Cuban-American Robert Colom and stars Atibon Nazaire, Sheila Anozier and Chris Renois, with a script from Sorelle and Colom.
UK-France sales outfit Alief has acquired international sales for Haitian-American filmmaker Monica Sorelle’s debut feature Mountains, ahead of its world premiere at Tribeca next month.
The drama, which will play in the US narrative competition, follows a family of Haitian migrants living in Miami, grappling with ambitions for a better life and a college dropout son, who is secretly harbouring a dream to be a stand-up comedian.
It is produced by Cuban-American Robert Colom and stars Atibon Nazaire, Sheila Anozier and Chris Renois, with a script from Sorelle and Colom.
- 5/12/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.