The film students and graduates worked on will premiere in the festival's U.S. dramatic competition
A new movie directed by Ethan Hawke with a crew including Ringling College of Art and Design students will soon debut at Sundance Film Festival.
The Oscar-nominated actor, writer and director (“Training Day,” “Boyhood,” the "Before" trilogy) will premiere “Blaze” at the festival, which runs Thursday through Jan. 28. The film is a biopic of country musician Blaze Foley.
Four Ringling College students and graduates worked on the film. Hawke visited the college in March, where he participated in a Q&A, spoke to students and the media and toured Ringling’s soundstages.
“I think this place is very exciting because it’s trying to elevate its status as a film school,” Hawke said. “People who are ambitious like that have a tendency in history to push things forward.”
Newcomer Ben Dickey stars as Foley, while Alia Shawkat (“Arrested Development,” “Search Party”) plays his partner Sybil Rosen, who shares a writing credit with Hawke for the film. The cast also includes Sam Rockwell, “Boyhood” and "Before" director Richard Linklater and music/film icon Kris Kristofferson.
Foley’s songs “If I Could Only Fly” and “Clay Pigeons” were covered by artists such as Merle Haggard and John Prine, but he never found fame before his death in 1989. Hawke said the idea of making a film about a lesser-known musician appealed to him.
“One of the things that bothers me is virtually every biopic you see is about somebody who became famous,” Hawke said. “It subtly puts forth this idea that a life is worth studying if it’s been celebrated already.”
It’s not the first time a film with Ringling’s involvement has screened at Sundance. “Dark Night,” which played at the festival in 2016, was loosely based on the “The Dark Knight Rises” shooting in Aurora, Colorado but filmed in Sarasota, using local actors and Ringling students on the crew.