South Commons - Jewish Story Partners

Logline

Joey Soloway remembers an idyllic childhood in an intentional community in the 1970s called South Commons, but in 2020 when Joey starts to reconnect with the other residents of South Commons, they find the community was not a utopia for everyone. Unearthing the different realities between the Black and white residents, they come to find that the seemingly liberal community was a microcosm for racial injustice in America.

Phase of Support: Development

Joey Soloway - Director, Producer

Joey Soloway is the creator of the groundbreaking amazon series Transparent, a poignant comedy that artfully explores identity, love, sex, god and boundaries through the lives of a complicated american family. Transparent received twenty-four Emmy nominations and eight Emmy awards including two for soloways directing and two golden globes. For the series finale, Transparent transitioned into a movie musicale, co-written by Joey Soloway and their sibling Faith and inspired by the musicals performed growing up in South Commons. Most recently, Soloway co-founded 5050by2020, an artist empowerment network and strategic initiative of times up. Other contributions to american/jewish/feminist/trans culture include the critically acclaimed amazon series I Love Dick, adapted from Chris Kraus critically acclaimed novel of the same name. Soloway also was a writer/producer on Six Feet Under and United States of Tara. Their first feature film, Afternoon Delight, won the directing award at Sundance in 2013.

Andrea Sperling - Producer

Andrea Sperling began her career as an independent film producer at the age of 21 and helped foster the careers of critically-acclaimed filmmakers such as Gregg Araki (The Doom Generation), David Ayer (Harsh Times), Ry Russo-Young (Nobody Walks), Jamie Babbit (But I’m a Cheerleader), Angela Robinson (Professor Marston & the Wonder Women), James Ponsoldt (Smashed) and Drake Doremus (Like Crazy). In 2014, Sperling was inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and made her first foray into television, executive producing Joey Soloway’s groundbreaking series Transparent. Sperling has twice been nominated for Independent Spirit Awards and has received Career Achievement Awards at the San Francisco, Torino, Vienna and Miami LGBTQ+ Film Festivals. In 2012, Sperling was awarded the Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Producing Achievement at the Sundance Film Festival—the only time in Sundance history that a producer has been awarded a Special Jury Prize.

Bow and Arrow (Matthew Perniciaro and Michael Sherman) - Producers

Bow and Arrow Entertainment was founded in 2014 by Matthew Perniciaro and Michael Sherman to create a focus on artist driven narrative and documentary motion pictures. Bow and Arrow premiered Elyse Steinberg and Josh Kriegman’s The Fight, Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw’s The Truffle Hunters and Sam Feder’s Disclosure at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Recent films include Rashid Johnson’s Native Son, an adaptation of Richard Wright’s famed novel for HBO, which premiered as the Opening Night selection of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and Alex Ross Perry’s Her Smell, starring Elisabeth Moss, which was named by The New York Times, Vanity Fair and Indiewire as “one of the best films of 2019”. The company has additionally produced the Sundance Film Festival entries Crystal Moselle’s Skate Kitchen, Josephine Decker’s Madeline’s Madeline, Jeff Baena’s The Little Hours, Alex Ross Perry’s Golden Exits and Dustin Guy Defa’s Person To Person.

Project logline and bios courtesy of the grantees.