“Grown” Set for World Premiere at SXSW March 12; “New Amsterdam” Star Jocko Sims Makes His Directorial Debut
NEW YORK, NY, February 28, 2023 — “Grown,” based on true events, is a coming of age short film that takes a grounded and humorous look at family dealing with the recent passing of the patriarch. “Grown” will premiere at SXSW Film & TV Festival on Sunday, March 12.
Having lost his father, Rogelio (Josiah Gabriel), 14, is an impressionable youth who thinks he’s “grown.” After devising a way to sneak into a strip club with his friends Larry (Tristan-Lee Edwards) and Chaz (Giovanni Cristoff), Rogelio will have to deal with the pressure of hiding his plan from the women who raised him: his mother, Emma (Eliza Ramos), and his older sister, Chelly (Angela Mejia-Loggia), while coping with recurring visions of his late father. With the help Chelly, Rogelio finds himself at a crossroads when he realizes the disconnect between the man he thought his father was, and the man his sister remembers.
The film, shot entirely on location in Brooklyn and Manhattan, features actors with backgrounds from Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Columbia, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Panama and Cuba.
Jocko Sims, star of the hit series “New Amsterdam” and currently in production on Hulu’s “How to Die Alone,” is making his directorial debut with “Grown.” He also wrote and produced the film.
Producers also include Christopher Santiago, Chaz Hazlitt and Andrew Zolot.
Cinematographer:
Andrew Voegeli (Breaking Bad, New Amsterdam.)
Stars:
Josiah Gabriel as Rogelio (Ro)
Tristen-Lee Edwards as Larry
Giovanni Cristoff as Chaz
Angela Mejia-Loggia as Chelly
Eliza Ramos as Emma
Kevin Rodriguez as Miguel
Nixon Ceasr as Diego
