‘The Sweet East’ Director Sean Price Williams on Politics, Unions and the Film Establishment
variety.comGregg Goldstein “I never really wanted to be a cinematographer,” says Sean Price Williams, who has nevertheless shot nearly 60 indie features, some 50 shorts and seven series since 1999. “I didn’t even know what that job was.
I’ve always wanted to direct, but didn’t have the means to make a movie.” At age 45, the widely respected lensman is finally getting around to his solo feature directorial debut, “The Sweet East,” pictured above, premiering in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.
The Match Factory is repping sales. Why the wait? “I wasn’t putting it off,” he says. “I just didn’t think anybody would ever give me money to do it.” Through his longtime collaborator and “Sweet” producer Alex Ross Perry’s agency connections, they enlisted stars like Jacob Elordi and Talia Ryder to secure financing.
His adventure comedy follows a South Carolina high school senior (Ryder) who breaks away from a class trip to start her own journey. “She guides us through different scenarios that illustrate idealogues in contemporary America,” he says. “They’re representations of current beliefs and situations.” The lineup includes Elordi as a Robert Pattinson-type star trying his hand at an indie film and Simon Rex as a white supremacist college professor. “There’s very much a political element to it,” he says. “The world has the easiest time saying America is a problematic, fucked-up place, and I feel so differently about it.
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