The Royal Road

The Royal Road (2015)

A cinematic essay in defense of remembering.

A fascinating and unlikely reinvention story, The Royal Road simultaneously explores cinematic spiritual channeling, the conquest and colonization of Mexico and the American Southwest, fading historical Californian urban landscapes, and the passions found in butch identity to achieve an achingly beautiful and poetic defense of remembering. Probing roads from El Camino Real, to the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, to the road right outside the front door, Olson crafts a deeply intelligent and transcending observation of the human condition that reaches for redemption in the embrace of history, nostalgia, mindfulness, and sheer beauty. If you give yourself over to it, it will crack you wide open.

Date of release
2015-03-22
TMDB
5.0 / 10 (9)
Runtime
1h 5m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Jenni Olson

Casting

Interesting facts

The Royal Road is a 2015 documentary film directed by Jenni Olson. The film premiered in the New Frontier section of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. In the film's voiceover, Olson reflects on her butch identity and experiences of unrequited love. The film went on to earn the award for Best LGBTQ Film at the 2015 Ann Arbor Film Festival. Consisting entirely of 16mm urban landscape shots and a lyrical stream of consciousness voiceover, the film touches on a wide range of topics from reflections on classic Hollywood film to the history of the Spanish colonization of California and the Mexican American War.

Production

Olson cited Sherman's March and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo as influences. San Francisco Film Society was the film's fiscal sponsor. The film had its Bay Area premiere on April 29, 2015, at the SFFS's San Francisco International Film Festival. Olson also crowdfunded $24,038 towards the production of the film. Olson's wife, Julie Dorf, produced the film.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended