by Abe Fried-Tanzer
Carlos Lopez Estrada, the director, with the cast of "Summertime" at Sundance
When Blindspotting premiered at Sundance on the opening night of the 2018 festival, the word was that two hundred ticket holders were turned away. They scheduled other screenings (where I saw the film), but it was clear that music video director Carlos López Estrada had something important to say that people wanted to hear. Just two years later, Estrada is back at Sundance opening the festival with his second feature…
In his first film, Estrada’s partner was Broadway star Daveed Diggs. This time he's working with twenty-seven spoken word artists, mostly between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six...
Oakland is swapped out for Los Angeles as the setting for this series of interconnected scenes. A few major threads persist throughout, like two eager rappers experiencing a meteoric rise and a sassy Yelper desperately searching for a burger and encountering nothing but new businesses that look and feel nothing like the comfort he seeks.
Summertime, which competes in Sundance’s NEXT category, is decidedly experimental, and the best part is: the concept works. Some segments, like the Yelper’s rant about what he could do with the $15 he just had to pay for a piece of toast, or a jaded ex-girlfriend’s yearning to stare at every book in a bookstore so that she can become smart, are hilarious. Nothing compares, however, to the impact of the more dramatic and unexpected introspections turned outwards. The characters, whose lives are clearly inspired by the spoken word artists playing them, channel an incredible sincerity and gravity.
There were many snaps heard from the group of twenty-seven cast members - all present - seated in the middle of the theater as they acknowledged the contributions of their peers while the film played. At a Q & A following the screening, several mentioned how rewarding it was to be able to represent themselves on screen in a way that diverse cultures rarely are. This is a film that embraces the richness of the many people that make up Los Angeles, giving those who might not otherwise have a voice a chance to speak their minds fully. And in verse, no less.