EXCLUSIVE: Music Box Films has acquired drama Mountains, the debut feature from Miami-based Haitian-American co-writer-director Monica Sorelle, who took home the Someone to Watch prize at this year’s Independent Spirit Awards.
Music Box will kick off the release with a hometown theatrical premiere on August 16 in Miami, followed by New York on August 23. A national expansion in key markets will follow.
The film looks at the intergenerational frictions within a Haitian-American family in a rapidly gentrifying Miami, exploring the desires and conflicts of three main characters: Xavier (Atibon Nazaire), a middle-aged demolition worker, his wife Esperance (Sheila Anozier), who works as both a seamstress and crossing guard, and their adult son Junior (Chris Renois), who finds himself caught between two cultures as he pursues a clandestine career in stand-up comedy.
Mountains premiered at Tribeca Festival, where it received a Special Jury Mention for Best Narrative Film. It also won the audience award at BlackStar and was an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film also garnered an Independent Spirit nomination for Best Breakthrough Performance for actor Atibon Nazaire, who plays Xavier, the stoic patriarch struggling to keep his family afloat.
Deadline called the movie “affecting and meditative… An enormously impressive feature debut.”
Pic was co-written and produced by Robert Colom, a fixture of the Miami filmmaking community. Both Colom and Sorelle are key members of the Caribbean creative collective Third Horizon, which recently programmed a selection of films on The Criterion Channel.
“Mountains is a film created by a small team of South Florida and Caribbean locals out of love not only for Little Haiti and Miami, but for communities around the globe that are struggling to maintain autonomy and memory in a rapidly changing world,” said Sorelle. “I’m so honored we are able to share this slice of life portrait of Miami and the Haitian experience to audiences nationwide.”
“Mountains has loomed large since we caught it at TIFF,” said Brian Andreotti, Head of Acquisitions for Music Box Films. “It’s the kind of truly independent American film that we love to support and elevate at Music Box Films: it’s a portrait of a particular family in a specific community, but that human-scaled drama illuminates issues of gentrification and displacement that impact neighborhoods across the country. Monica and Robert make the boundaries of a backyard in Little Haiti feel as wide as the whole world.”
“We’re thrilled to be working with the Music Box team to bring Mountains to audiences,” said the film’s co-writer and producer Robert Colom. “Music Box’s place as a bridge between foreign and American independent cinema is a perfect match for our film, and we’re excited for the team’s great care and excellent eye to amplify the story of this family, and the spirit of Little Haiti.”
