Cassandra, a movie by Roger Ross Williams, has its world premiere at Sundance 2023

Coming this fall:
CASSANDRO

Cassandro is the new scripted film from Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Roger Ross Williams, starring Gael García Bernal. It had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, and is scheduled to be released by Amazon Studios this fall.

Cassandra, a movie by Roger Ross Williams, has its world premiere at Sundance 2023

An outsider turned unlikely superstar

Cassandro is the new scripted film from Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Roger Ross Williams.

It stars Gael García Bernal as Saúl Armendáriz, an American-born luchador wrestler, who grew up near the U.S.-Mexican border in El Paso, Texas.

Being gay in this machismo-driven industry, he creates a flamboyant persona known as Cassandro, the Liberace of Lucha Libre. And against all odds, he becomes one of Mexican wrestling’s most unique heroes, not just upending the macho wrestling world, but also his own life…

Cassandro is set to stream on Prime Video in the fall of 2023.

Roger Ross Williams on set

Rousing portrait of sexual identity

Roger Ross Williams about Cassandro: “I have always been attracted to telling the stories of outsiders. The remarkable real-life tale of Cassandro, a gay Mexican wrestler who lives on the border of the US and Mexico, immediately grabbed me. Here was a true outsider, a gay man in a deeply Catholic culture who rose to fame in the macho world of Lucha Libre wrestling, not by hiding his sexuality, but by making it central to his performance.

My own life experience as a gay, black man has made me realize the importance of telling stories we don’t usually hear. The true story of Cassandro, Saúl Armendáriz, was one I knew I wanted to tell from the moment I met him.”

Donna Summer: Love To Love You

Doc “Love To Love You, Donna Summer” streams on HBO MAX May 20

Love To Love You, Donna Summer, co-directed by Roger Ross Williams and Summer’s daughter, Brooklyn Sudano, premieres May 20, 2023, on HBO MAX.

Love To Love You, Donna Summer captures a richly complex picture of the woman, the artist and disco queen, the wife, and mother whose iconic voice changed music forever, and is shaped by her own reflections. Working with a rich archive of unpublished film excerpts and home video, photographs, artwork, writings, personal audio and other recordings often created by Donna Summer herself, the skillful assimilation of audio testimonies establishes how complete an artist and how complex a person Donna Summer was.

Love To Love You, Donna Summer had its World Premiere at the 2023 Berlinale, followed by its U.S. Premiere at 2023 edition of SXSW.

Love to Love You, Donna Summer is produced by Motto Pictures for HBO/HBOMAX.

Traveling while black