Festivals - Sundance Film Festival 2021 : R#J will have its world premiere

By Mulder, 03 january 2021

In fair Verona, a war as old as time is brewing between rival houses—but it’s being captured in a new way. Montague and Capulet Gen Zers are using their cell phones to document the eruptions of violence plaguing their communities. In the middle of it all, Romeo discovers Juliet’s artwork at a party, and the two inevitably fall in love. As tensions between their families escalate, the two plead for peace and desperately search for a way to escape their star-crossed destiny.

Told entirely through social media and smartphone screens, this bold adaptation of Romeo and Juliet reinvents the world’s most enduring love story with style and lyricism, with black and brown youth at the heart of it all. Blending text messages and Shakespearean dialogue, R#J takes us into the subversive love language of the moment, where GIFs, Spotify playlist exchanges, and Instagram profiles kindle romance and unexpected windows of vulnerability. Sundance shorts alum Carey Williams (Emergency) launches us into the impressive vision of his debut feature, where technology powerfully unveils timelessness.

Synopsis :
A modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare's romantic tragedy 'Romeo and Juliet'.

R#J (USA)
Directed by Carey Williams
Produced by Timur Bekmambetov, Igor Tsay, John J. Kelly, Alex Sobolev, Anna Soboleva
Executive Producers : Valery An, Oleg Petrov, Adam Sidman, Maria Zatulovskaya, Olga Kharina
Written by Carey Williams, Rickie Castaneda, Alex Sobolev
Starring Camaron Engels, Francesca Noel, David Zayas, Diego Tinoco, Siddiq Saunderson, Russell Hornsby
Music by René G. Boscio
Cinematography : Diego Madrigal
Production Designer : Evelyn Ellias
Costume Designer : Desi Aguilar
Unit Production Manager : David Dilley
Edited by Lam T. Nguyen
Distributed by Interface Films
Release date : January 31, 2021 (Sundance)
Running time : 91 minutes

Premiere : jan. 31 - 3:00am // Second screening : feb. 1 - 4:00pm (local time)

(Source : press release)