In 2015, Oscar- and Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Roger Ross Williams decided to make his first narrative feature, “Cassandro,” which is screening in the Sundance Premieres. At the time, Willi…
In 2015, Oscar- and Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Roger Ross Williams decided to make his first narrative feature, “,” which is screening in the Sundance Premieres. At the time, Williams was in El Paso, Texas, working on a short documentary about the real-life Cassandro, a Mexican, openly gay, cross-dressing Lucha Libre wrestler. “From the first day, I was just blown away by Cassandro’s inner spirit and joy,” Williams says.
Williams initially thought that the journey from narrative idea to finished project would be fairly cut and dry. He partnered with longtime collaborator, film editor David Teague, to write the screenplay. Then he called Michelle Satter, founding senior director of the Sundance Institute’s Artist Programs, and said that he would like to participate in the Sundance Screenwriting Lab. “Michelle said, ‘Well, that’s not how it works,” remembers Williams. “You actually have to submit a screenplay.
Throughout the next several years, Williams and Teague worked on the screenplay and eventually teamed with Amazon Studios to make the project become a reality. After attending both the Sundance Screenwriting Intensive and the Director’s Lab, Williams got the “Cassandro” script into the hands of Gael García Bernal, who eventually signed on to play the titular role, but also produced the film under his and Diego Luna’s banner La Corriente Del Golfo.
You have won an Oscar, an Emmy, a Webby, a Peabody and a NAACP Image award for the work you have done in the doc space. Why make a narrative when you are at the top of your game in the nonfiction field? I like to tell stories in different ways and work in different formats. That’s why I made a VR piece. Narrative filmmaking is just another way of telling stories. That’s exciting to me because it’s a new challenge and I like to challenge myself.
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