The Sundance Directors and Screenwriters lab have given us some incredible talents and breakouts over the years. The month-long program is designed for first time filmmakers to workshop scenes from their in-progress screenplays. Some previous participants include Damien Chazelle, Ryan Coogler, Dee Rees, and Benh Zeitlin. Given the pedigree of the program, it is definitely always exciting when a participant’s workshopped project finally get released.
What can we be looking out for this year? Well, eyes are on 2015 participant writer and director Olivia Newman’s debut feature film “First Match.” On her time at Sundance Newman said, “this is part of the magic of Sundance – learning on the fly, and not always understanding what you have learned or what has led you there…”
Check out Netflix’s official synopsis and the trailer below.
Hardened by years in foster care, a teenage girl from Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood decides that joining the all-boys’ wrestling team is the only way back to her estranged father.
“First Match” stars a cast of relative unknowns lead by Elvire Emanuelle, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Colman Domingo, Jharrel Jerome, and Jared Kemp. Newman spoke to Refinery29 about the nationwide casting search and finding her lead in Emanuelle’s self-submitted audition tape. “On first watch, I knew I’d found our Mo. And to top it off, she was a natural wrestler, born in Brooklyn and had lived in Brownsville as a child.”
In fact, the part of the idea for Newman to adapt the film from her 2010 award-winning short of the same name came from meeting Emanuelle. “The friendship we developed over the years, the time I spent at her wrestling practices, and the stories she and her friend shared with me, eventually inspired me to expand the short into a feature and ground it in her neighborhood of Brownsville.”
“First Match” be available to stream on Netflix March 30, following its premiere at SXSW this week.