Film-maker Marshall Tyler reflects on the emotional trauma of a man determined to find a step in the medium of dance in the short drama SLOW PULSE.
Film And TV Now spoke with the film-maker about the short.
FILM AND TV NOW: This is the story of a bond between father and son. What was the start off point for the script?
MARSHALL TYLER: The start off point was this idea I had for a fish-out-of-water story about this middle-aged man trying determinedly to dance, but was failing miserably at it, and he’s among all these kids in a dance class and was humiliating himself, yet was so dedicated to it regardless of what was going to happen to him. And the story evolved from there.
But it wasn’t my intention going in, to have it be about what it’s about. It just sort of became what it became. And I think, in looking back, that it’s such a beautiful and powerful story that was just out there waiting to be told.
The funny thing is that my other two shorts, Cap and Night Shift are based on real people and/or events. And when this story of devotion and love came to me, it wasn’t a reference to any one person that I knew or a situation I encountered like my other films, but when we were casting the film, and looking for a 9- year-old Black boy that could really dance and met Zion’s father, Sylvester, it started to become clear to me that Sylvester was the real-life father that the story portrays, which blows my mind how that works.
It feels like the Universe conspired to bring all these elements together to tell this story. So, the start off point was this fish-out-of-water story that just evolved and became a film about community and devotion, and about a man with a mission, and most importantly, about love and dreams.
FTVN: Dance can be a very therapeutic remedy, which people can gauge from personal experience if they try it. How important is dance in your own life?
MT: For me, dance is healing and life affirming.
Sometimes you can be down and you hear a song that gets you moving and next thing you know you’re dancing and enjoying yourself and sweating and feeling good. And then it’s like, ‘wait, why was I down again?’ So, dance is so important.
I love to watch people dance and express themselves in the most creative ways. I went to a creative and performing arts school for middle and high school, so I had been exposed to all kinds of dance from early on. And I know how much dancers love to dance. A dancer’s love for dance and craft is different from those on the outside of that love.
They live it and eat it up every day. There’s a remarkable full-time commitment to it, to perfect form. So, I wanted to showcase that commitment in the story. But this is not a dance movie, per se. This is a story about healing that’s told through dance.
Dance is culture, it is connection, it’s history and form and was a big part of my upbringing, not necessarily the formal craft of dance, but the self-expression social dance that we partake in growing up in black communities, so it’s important for me to utilize dance as a device in my storytelling.
I have a great dance scene in my Sundance short Night Shift that was so unexpected and was shot so beautifully that it expanded the language of the film and brought another layer of storytelling to the project that wouldn’t have been there without it.
If I could, I’d have some kind of dance scene in all my films. So, as a form of our cultural social expression and the importance it was in my upbringing, dance has been a big part of my life.
FTVN: Tell us about your cast.
MT: I first fell in love with Jimmie Fails as an actor when I saw him in The Last Black Man in San Francisco at Sundance a few years back.
I love actors whose eyes and mannerisms convey so much vulnerability and Jimmie Fails has that in spades. He’s a fantastic actor who is very nuanced in all his choices which as a director, is king to me. The thing with Jimmie is that he can actually dance.
He’s rhythmically inclined so him trying not to be able to dance was a challenge. How do you unlearn what comes so natural to you? It’s hard to do convincingly because it goes against all of your instincts. So that was a big challenge for the role.
But from the moment he flew down to Los Angeles from San Francisco, he was fully committed to learning the choreography with Tamika and Zion and truly gave his all. But It’s Jimmie’s heartbreak that sells the story which speaks to the kind of incredible actor he is. Not to mention it’s a role with very few words so it takes a very special talent to truly pull that off, which he did wonderfully.
I’m truly grateful to our long-time Casting Director, Danny Cabeza for being so diligent and staying steadfast in landing him.
In terms of finding Zion Ruppert for the role of Jacob, we literally looked high and low for a 9-year-old black boy who could dance at a level that isn’t typical for a 9-year-old. And one of my producers, Efuru Flowers contacted the Debbie Allen Dance Academy to see if such a talent existed and after lots of coercing since it’s not policy for them to provide cast, they sent over a video of Zion dancing and I was simply blown away.
I knew within seconds that this is the kid we were looking for. We had a Zoom with his father, Sylvester who told me how he was a single father raising three boys and that all Zion loves to do is dance. And he went in detail about Zion’s dance journey and how he got a scholarship to Debbie Allen’s academy and how he gave up football to dance. And the sacrifice as a father supporting his son’s journey was immense.
Zion’s father was the real-life Bernard Brash and I knew once we had Zion and Jimmie onboard that we had a film. I knew that it would all work out because I now had my dream cast. I also love immersing actors into real situations with non-actors. To me, it just brings a different level of believability to the film which I also did in my last short, Cap.
So, recruiting Tamika Washington (who had no acting experience) as the Choreographer and Dance Instructor as well as having the students of the Lulu Washington Dance Theatre participate in the film was all just icing on the cake. It just feels more authentic and honest to me as a film-maker and that’s really what I’m trying to achieve when shooting a film.
FTVN: Tell us about your production team.
MT: My production team consists of my producing partner Moira Griffin, as well as Efuru Flowers and Jeremy Hartman.
We have worked with the same department heads on all of my shorts starting with Cinematographer Eric Branco, Composer Timo Chen, Costume Designer Sami Martins, Production Designer Ami Jo Diaz and Colorist Zach Meadows who handled our post.
We had a new editor in the mix with Elliott Eisman and a new sound mixer with Sam Harris from the Noise Nest who donated so much time to this project. We also had support from Wayne Witherspoon who was our AD/co-producer, as well as Ben McCrea who helped us find locations and also co-produced.
We had a short amount of time to turn around this project so it was definitely all hands-on deck. It’s such a blessing working with the same crew because you’re already familiar with each other, making the collaborative process much more seamless.
FTVN: Where did you shoot and for how long?
MT: We shot the film all around the South Los Angeles / Crenshaw District area and we shot for four days.
LA is where we have shot my last three shorts and I love showcasing a different side of the city that we don’t often see portrayed on-screen. It’s a local effort with Lulu Washington Dance Academy playing a large role, they were so supportive in not only allowing us to use the space to shoot, also where we held our rehearsals.
I love showing LA in a different light, especially South LA. It’s a big thrill for me to be able to do so.
FTVN: Who and what are your key cinematic influences?
MT: I’m hugely inspired by the Dardenne Brothers, who I recently had the pleasure of meeting a few months back before their premiere of Tori and Lokita at Cannes. It was a dream come true for me. They are my biggest filmic inspiration.
I’m also very inspired by Ryan Coogler, Barry Jenkins, Steve McQueen, Nicolas Winding Refn, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Claire Denis, Mati Diop, RaMell Ross, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Bela Tarr, Terrence Malick and my film hero, Michael Mann (to name a few). I’m inspired by visually stunning films that are grounded and have a strong emotional core and am a big fan of cinema from around the world.
FTVN: You are an alumni of the ABC Disney Television Directing Program. How did you get into the Program and what are the key things you have learned from being part of that?
MT: I got into the ABC Director’s Program after applying, writing an essay and then doing a series of in-person interviews.
The final interview was with a panel of about 15 studio execs who each ask you a bunch of questions, which feels like being in some kind of movie. The best part of the program is the access that they give you to industry leaders as well as support for shadowing TV directors.
I also was a Fellow in the Ryan Murphy Half Initiative which is how I landed my first episodic directing assignment on a show called 9-1-1 with Angela Bassett. But what I learned from those programs is how much politics is at play when working in episodic, how exciting it is to figure out the best way to tell these stories in a limited amount of time, and how rewarding the work can be at the end of the day.
Without those programs, I wouldn’t have had access to the level of professionals and get to see first hand how they navigate these spaces and situations. Also, when shadowing, you get to ask questions, observe the process and build connections which truly makes a huge difference in the long run.
FTVN: Who would you most like to work with in the future if you had the opportunity?
MT: Man, there are so many people that I’d love to work with. It’s tough to think about exactly who.
But I’ll say, for now, John David Washington and Nicole Beharie—two incredibly wonderful actors that are both equally fascinating to watch. I’d love the opportunity to collaborate with them on something. I love Zendaya too, Taylour Paige, Andre Holland— I mean the list goes on and on.
I’m also a big Michael Shannon fan and Melissa Leo. I love the work of so many talented actors, it’s hard to name just a few.
FTVN: Are there plans to show the film to families and communities of those who have been affected by the experience highlighted in the film?
MT: This film was commissioned by Procter & Gamble for their 8:46/Widen the Screen initiative.
The goal of the film was to reclaim the life and narrative stolen from George Floyd. I wanted to honor his life as a father which was something that was very important to me. There aren’t any plans to show the film to families and communities of those who have been affected by the experience highlighted in the film.
But I dedicate this film to all those families who have had to deal with this kind of situation, as well as to those parents, particularly fathers, who continue to be our dream warriors. We’ve been fortunate to have Slow Pulse play around the country and on CBS prime-time which was such an honor to be able to reach such a wide and expansive audience.
So, my goal is to have this film continue to reach hearts and minds around the world and maybe provide a little hope about how miraculous life can be.
FTVN: Would you like to expand on the issues and themes explored in this short into a feature idea?
MT: You know, I do have a brief outline of the feature version of this story, but I’m not sure I’d actually pursue expanding it, as it wasn’t my intention to make this as a feature film.
I’m in development on a project right now on a project that will be my first feature, so right now all my effort and attention is on that project. But I’d love to come back and revisit this story at a later time and explore it as a feature-length narrative. I think it would be so damn cool.
The themes in this story are ideas that are dear to me, so the thought of expanding them beyond this particular short would be something I’d seriously consider and would actually love to do.
FTVN: What other issues and themes are you keen to explore in future work?
MT: I’m always looking for interesting stories to tell. I love telling stories about the everyday man and bringing those stories forward in a truly elevated way. I’m keen on exploring stories about the underdog and stories that centers life, ecstatic joy and heartbreak in a really interesting way.
I’m motivated by the everyday-ness of our existence, it’s what gets me most excited about telling stories. I love encountering fascinating people, writing interesting characters and shepherding stories we haven’t seen before. But my main goal as a storyteller and film-maker is to show us all as fully human; flaws and all.
FTVN: How has the festival circuit helped your film?
MT: Premiering Slow Pulse at Tribeca and having it play various festivals has been a great joy, especially being able to see it with an audience.
Playing festivals feels validating. As a film-maker and artist, you’re constantly looking for places that make you feel seen, and festivals are those spaces for us. So, I’m always thankful when any of our work gets programmed in a fest. That these festival programmers think this work needs to be included in a line-up of other fantastic films for their audience, means something to me.
I will say though, what’s difficult about short films and being in a block of five or six films, is how it plays with the other films in that same block. Does it play first or last, etc.? Do all the films build collectively in an overall way?
It all kind of matters when and where a film like this is placed in a line up. But winning Pan African Film Festival, as their choice for Oscar consideration, has now brought the film to an audience who otherwise wouldn’t be familiar with my work at this stage in my career. And though this is my third Oscar-qualifying festival win, this is the first time that there’s an actual push to get my work seen by the right people.
So, the festival circuit has helped my career in unknown ways, but especially as it pertains to exposure and connections. The fact that these fests and short films are able to open doors in such an impactful way is astonishing to me.
FTVN: Finally, what are you most proud of about this short?
MT: I’m most proud of the fact that we were able to take eight minutes and forty-six seconds to tell this powerful story of love and devotion while adhering to such a strict and specific running time.
The mission was to reclaim the time of George Floyd’s cold-blooded murder by disgraced, ex-Minneapolis cop, Derek Chauvin and turn the amount time that officer knelt on the neck of a fellow American citizen and transform the tragedy that that particular eight minutes and forty-six seconds represents in our collective consciousness into a story of hope and resilience. I’m proud that we were able to effectively do that.
I’m also proud how this is a film that was lovingly made by the South LA/ Crenshaw community.
From the involvement of Lulu Washington’s Dance Theater providing student dancers to Debbie Allen’s Dance Academy helping us find Zion, to the liquor store owner who let us shot in his store, the laundromat we shot in, the junior high school auditorium, the home that became our main character’s home, the local parks and neighborhoods were all, for the most part, from the Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw’s area and I’m so very proud of showing a side of South LA that we don’t normally see.
I’m also incredibly proud to be part of Procter & Gamble’s 8:46 Films and how this immense story of love and devotion continues to win over hearts and minds after every viewing. It’s all so special to me
