News

Exclusive: Julio Macias (On My Block) and Pepe Serna are leading the cast of the indie thriller Three Years Gone, written and directed by John Gutierrez (Sons of the Sea). The film recently wrapped production.

Three Years Gone follows the harrowing journey of Maria (Elizabeth Caro) and her father, David (Macias), as they search for an exorcism to rid him of the demons he believes followed him back from the war. David, haunted by his past, kidnaps Maria from her mother, Veronica (Joey Marie Urbina), who faces her inner battles.

The project marks 13-year-old Caro’s first leading role, following her appearances in various films and TV shows.

Joey Marie Urbina and Elizabeth Caro in “Three Years Gone”

“Bringing this story to life has been an emotional experience. Three Years Gone is not just a film; it’s a tribute to my family’s past, a deep...

When you’re an independent filmmaker, there are a few different ways of working within the TV/streaming space. You could be a TV repairman (of any gender!) or work for the cable company. Those are pretty good. But! If you’re reading this blog, chances are your ambitions run a little more toward creating the content actually populating these devices and platforms. In that case, you could A) create a brand-new series and become its ruthless, dictatorial showrunner, or B) step into an already-existing series as the director of an individual episode.

For the former, there’s always our Episodic Lab. But for the latter, there’s the Film Independent Episodic Directing Intensive–where in just three whirlwind days, a diverse cross-section of veteran directors, showrunners, actors, executives and cinematographers provide a heavy-duty brain dump to six up-and-coming filmmakers, sharing their experiences and knowledge of the episodic directing landscape.

Exclusive: Film Independent has named the six filmmakers selected for its third annual Episodic Directing Intensive: John Gutierrez, Lorena Lourenço, Alfonso Morgan-Terrero, Huriyyah Muhammad, Kelsey Taylor and So Young Shelly Yo.

A three-day program, the Intensive welcomes veteran directors, showrunners, actors, cinematographers and executives to share their experiences and knowledge of the episodic directing landscape. Notables set to appear this time around include Kyle Patrick Alvarez, Johnson Cheng, Gloria Fan, Georgina Gonzalez, Liz Kelly, Shari Page, Jeremy Podeswa, Alysia Reiner, Beth Schacter, Nancy Schreiber, ASC, Yira Vilaro, Rina Varughese and Daniel Willis, among others.

“In this ever-changing landscape, we are thrilled to support these talented directors and equip them with the knowledge to launch and sustain careers in episodic directing,” said Dea Vazquez, Associate Director of Fiction Programs.

Read more about this year’s Intensive participants below.

John Gutierrez

John Gutierrez is an award-winning Latine writer/director from California. He...

Exclusive: BAFTA-winning Uprising producer Rogan Productions and Electric Shadow Company are forging Original Sin, a documentary miniseries exploring South African alleged murderer Gerhard Jansen van Vuuren and his trial.

After allegedly violently murdering his girlfriend Andrea Venter, when she was 25, in front of witnesses and CCTV cameras, and escaping prison twice, van Vuuren evaded the authorities across two continents for years, assumed three different identities and started families with several different women, before he was caught in 2020.

His trial was filmed as part of the doc and sentencing is due next month, while producers gained access to many of the major characters in the case along with reams of archive from both van Vuuren and Venter’s family.

The producers are forging as a mini-series but have the option to craft into a feature film. African producer MultiChoice Studios is also on board and Original Sin is being made in association...