Posted by Elena del Valle on September 25, 2024
We have not used AI-assisted technologies in creating this article.
Dusty and Stones
Photo: First Run Features
Thanks to funding from HBO New True Stories Funding Initiative, the Gotham Documentary Feature Lab, Film Independent’s Fast Track, Durban FilmMart, and the XTR Film Society filmmakers followed two struggling country singers from the African Kingdom of Swaziland (now the Kingdom of Eswatini) on a journey from their home country to the United States. The result is Dusty & Stones, an 84-minute First Run Features 2023 documentary release, scheduled to open in theaters in Los Angeles October 11 and Atlanta October 18.
The film centers on cousins Gazi “Dusty” Simelane and Linda “Stones” Msibi in Swaziland and their 10-day road journey to a recording studio in Nashville and a small town in Texas for a country music event. According to the film website Dusty is a high school English teacher at Swaziland’s National High School, and Stones is a construction project manager.
Dusty and Stones was directed and produced by Jesse Rudoy, produced by Melissa Adeyemo, executive produced by Sam Bisbee and Cody Ryder of Ominira Film in association with Park Pictures.
Per his biography Rudoy is a filmmaker, musician, and born-again country fan based in New York City. He was most recently an editor on Season 2 of HBO’s The Jinx. Per her biography Adeyemo is a Nigerian-American producer and the founder of Ominira Studios, a New York-based production company. Her first feature, Eyimofe, premiered at the 2020 Berlinale and was acquired by Janus Films.
Posted by Elena del Valle on September 20, 2024
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Posted by Elena del Valle on September 11, 2024
We have not used AI-assisted technologies in creating this article.
Like Happiness
Photos: Celadon Books, Levi Travieso
For readers hungering for something a bit out of the ordinary Ursula Villarreal-Moura wrote Like Happiness (Celadon Books, $28), her first novel. The book explores the complexities of gender and power by examining a young woman’s destructive relationship with a well known writer. Set in 2015 in Chile, where Tatum Vega and her partner Vera lived, the story is narrated in the present and a past 10 years earlier, which Vega would rather forget. Accusations against the author with whom she had a relationship in the past force her to examine her history with the author and its lingering impact on her life.
The author answered questions by email via her publisher Celadon Books.
HMPR: What would you say is the primary target audience for the book?
UVM: I don’t know if there is one set target audience. The people who have reacted most positively describe themselves as 1) fans of thrillers, 2) readers of sad girl books, or 3) people fascinated with intersectionality and power dynamics.
HMPR: What did you mean by the title?
UVM: The protagonist of Like Happiness is infatuated with a book titled Happiness, so it’s a riff off that as well as an ode to her involvement with the book’s author.
HMPR: What made you choose the topic?
UVM: I was absolutely obsessed with the literary world and with power dynamics. I married those themes in Like Happiness and soon got sucked into that world.
HMPR: What do you think distinguishes your book from other titles?
UVM: I’ve been told it’s the nuance that makes it a different read. The main relationship lives in morally grey territory for quite some time. It’s also a Latinx book that doesn’t deal at all with immigration, or anything stereotypically considered “Mexican” or Latino. The main characters do ordinary things and just so happen to be Chicana and Puerto Rican.
HMPR: How will you measure success?
UVM: I’ve seen the book in multiple libraries, which means it’s available to people who might not be able to afford a hardcover. Like Happiness also has served as a bridge linking me with readers and other writers all over the globe. I consider those metrics of success.
HMPR: What is your next book project?
UVM: I’m working on another novel, a memoir, and possibly an essay collection. I never know which project I’ll complete next. It’s always a surprise. If readers enjoy Like Happiness, I also have a collection out titled Math for the Self-Crippling to hold them off until the next book.
Ursula Villarreal-Moura, author, Like Happiness
Villarreal-Moura was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling, a flash fiction collection.
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