SYNOPSIS
La Chima Films presents TWO STEP, a fast-paced Texas thriller in which the lives of James, a directionless college dropout, and Webb, a career criminal with his back against the wall, violently collide. Kicked out of college, James visits Grams, his only remaining family, who dies shortly after his arrival. He finds consolation in the company of Grams’ neighbor, Dot, a dance teacher, as he figures out his next move. While settling Grams’ affairs, James learns she’s been the victim of the “grandparent scam” in which someone posing as James has been slowly bilking her out of thousands. But before James can go looking for the culprit, he shows up at the front door, desperate for money. The culprit, Webb, has his own problems in the form of Duane, who has ordered Webb to pay an old debt or else. And if Webb can’t get it from Grams, James will have to do – no matter who stands in his way.
PANELIST BIOS
Alex R. Johnson, director, writer, producer
Alex is an Austin, TX based filmmaker, recently relocated from NYC. In 2005, he produced Henry Corra’s “Same Sex America” (Showtime Networks), a feature length documentary about the fight for gay marriage in Massachusetts. Johnson also produced “I Am Secretly An Important Man,” Pete Sillen’s feature length documentary about one of the most celebrated voices of Seattle’s grunge era, the late poet Steven Jesse Bernstein. That film premiered in 2010 at the MoMA and the IFC Center in New York, and is currently available on VOD. His own short narrative films, “Pickup and Return” and “Thanksgiving,” have screened at festivals worldwide. The BFI London Film Festival said, “Thanksgiving” was “a bittersweet and darkly funny tale of urban isolation” while the Florida Film Festival called it “hilariously melancholy.” Johnson’s earlier feature screenplays have been accepted in both the Hamptons International Film Festival Screenwriter’s Lab as well as IFP’s Emerging Narrative Projects. TWO STEP is Johnson’s feature
Patrick Cassidy, producer
Pat is a American born film producer based in Austin, TX. Pat was surronded by filmmakers from an early age and began writing and directing short films at age fourteen. In 2007 he produced the short horror film LULLABY which went on to sell to Fearnet, a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Lionsgate. In 2009, Pat teamed up with director Eric Hurt and Erica Arvold to make the indie thriller HOUSE HUNTING. HOUSE HUNTING was released in 2011 by Phase 4 Films and has gone on to have a very successful television, VOD and DVD release. In 2012, Pat was brought on to work with Kim Henkel of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE fame to produce the independent horror film BUTCHER BOYS.
