Disney/PictureGroup

FILM & TV

Morrisa Maltz’s New Feature Jazzy Premieres at Tribeca Film Festival

Disney/PictureGroup

Morrisa Maltz’s new coming-of-age feature, Jazzy premieres at Tribeca Film Festival this June.

The festival announced its lineup last week. Among other exciting titles, the event shared that they will host the world premiere of Jazzy.

Maltz’s film tells the story of a young Oglala Lakota girl named Jazzy growing up in South Dakota. Based on its star, Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux, the feature, “captures the joys and heartbreaks of childhood friendship” as she navigates the challenges of young adulthood.

The follow-up film to Maltz’s 2022 drama, The Unknown Country, also stars award-winning actress Lily Gladstone as she reprises her role of Tana. In addition, the Blackfoot actress serves as an executive producer.

Written, directed, and produced by Maltz, the drama has a runtime of eighty-six minutes. It features cinematography by Andrew Hajek and music by composer Alexis Marsh. 

Tribeca Film Festival

In addition to Bearkiller Shangreaux and Gladstone, actors Syriah Fool Head Means, Richard Ray Whitman, and Raymond Lee appear onscreen.

Shot over six years, the film wrapped production last August. It was one of the first features to receive the SAG Waiver Agreement to complete filming in July 2023.

Maltz decided to create the film after witnessing the breakout performance by Bearkiller Shangreaux in her 2022 production. Gladstone reflected on working with the young actress, “One of the greatest gifts of making The Unknown Country with Morrisa Maltz was meeting the Bearkiller-Shangreaux family, and witnessing the unbridled, exuberant creative energy that Jasmine brings into every corner of her young life.”

The Killers of the Flower Moon star continued, “Her gregarious confidence lent itself to the effortless story construction and improvisation that made the scenes work, and made all of us, who were relatively strangers, feel like immediate family.”

Maltz created the film in collaboration with the children who star in it, keeping in mind their perspectives to convey an accurate depiction to its audience.

Jazzy premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival this summer. The event takes place from June 5 to 16. Those who wish to attend can purchase tickets starting April 30.