Boots Riley’s riotous satire of capitalism and racial biases, “Sorry to Bother You,” was a sensation at the Sundance Film Festival and a surprise summer hit. Made for $5 million, the veteran musician’s first feature has grossed close to $18 million in North America, with the story of a wayward telemarketer (Lakeith Stanfield) using his “white voice” to generate sales transforming into a cultural phenomenon. But Riley spent years trying to generate interest in the project before landing the resources to bring the project to fruition.
The filmmaker’s biggest strides came from the publication of the screenplay in McSweeney’s, a grant from the San Francisco Film Society, and participation in the Sundance Institute’s labs. In the midst all that, however, Riley found himself engaged in “speed dating” with potential investors at Ifp’s Project Forum in 2015, when the screenplay was featured in the No Borders International Co-Production Market.
The filmmaker’s biggest strides came from the publication of the screenplay in McSweeney’s, a grant from the San Francisco Film Society, and participation in the Sundance Institute’s labs. In the midst all that, however, Riley found himself engaged in “speed dating” with potential investors at Ifp’s Project Forum in 2015, when the screenplay was featured in the No Borders International Co-Production Market.
- 9/19/2018
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
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