The Big Picture

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff sits down with the team behind In the Summers at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Director Alessandra Lacorazza and stars René Pérez Joglar, Leslie Grace, Sasha Calle and Lío Mehiel discuss their experience making the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning film. Inspired by Lacorazza’s relationship with her own father, In the Summers chronicles the formative years of two sisters during their yearly summer visits to their father’s home in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Alessandra Lacorazza’s feature directorial debut, In the Summers, rocks one of the best ensembles of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Stellar actors are vital to the success of any film, but given the narrative structure of In the Summers and the vast period of time it covers, it was of the utmost importance that the ideal group was assembled, and Lacorazza and casting director Stephanie Yankwitt absolutely knock it out of the park in that respect.

Inspired by Lacorazza’s own life, In the Summers follows sisters, Violeta (Lío Mehiel, Kimaya Thais Limòn and Dreya Renae Castillo) and Eva (Sasha Calle, Allison Salinas and Luciana Quinonez), as they visit their father (René Pérez Joglar) in Las Cruces, New Mexico during the summers throughout their childhood and into their young adult years.

It’s a beautifully scripted and acted piece that received the praise it deserved at the festival. Not only did In the Summers take home the U.S. Grand Jury Prize, but Lacorazza also won the U.S. Dramatic Directing Award, an extremely well-earned honor given the storytelling challenges that come with chronicling the lives of three individuals over many years with just 98 minutes of screen time.

While in Park City celebrating the film’s big debut, Lacorazza, Mehiel, Calle, Joglar, and Leslie Grace all took the time to visit the Collider interview studio brought to you by Film.io to revisit their experience bringing Lacorazza’s script to screen. Check out the video above or the interview transcript below to learn all about why Joglar opted to make his acting debut with In the Summers, how Lacorazza used the filmmaking experience to better understand her father, and loads more.

In the Summers On a journey that spans the formative years of their lives, two sisters navigate their loving but volatile father during their yearly summer visits to his home in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Release Date January 22, 2024 Director Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio Cast Residente , Sasha Calle , Lío Mehiel , Leslie Grace Runtime 95 minutes Main Genre Drama Writers Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio

PERRI NEMIROFF: Alessandra, a lot of people will first learn about your movie through the festival, so can you give us a brief synopsis of the film?

ALESSANDRA LOCORAZZA: It’s a story about two sisters that visit their dad in the summer, and it tracks them through many years of their lives.

This is your feature directorial debut here. When you decided you wanted to make your first feature, what did you think was step one to making it happen, and then ultimately, is that a step that worked, or would you recommend something else to aspiring filmmakers out there?

LACORAZZA: I don’t do any future thinking in general. This is a story that kind of came out really naturally, and I just wrote it, and then it got into the right hands. Just one step in front of the next step, and then the next step. I didn’t really think about how to get it out in the world. It was just something I wanted to tell.

What was the first piece that fell into place, or the person who supported you that made you think, “We’re really gonna do this now?”

LACORAZZA: I think that would be Alex Dinelaris and Lexicon. I met him through a fellowship I did with the WGA and FilmNation, and I sent him my script and he loved it. He was like, “I want to help you make this.” He was the first person who I was like, “Okay, maybe we’re gonna make this.”

‘In the Summers’ Director Made Lío Mehiel Feel Like a Better Actor
Image via Photagonist at the Collider Media Studio

Again, Alessandra’s first feature here. I have a feeling that she’s going to make many, many more, so can you each tell me something about her as a leader on set and also an actor’s director that you are excited for more actors to get to experience in the future?

LÍO MEHIEL: I talked to Alessandra before we started shooting about the fact that I can be a little bit of an insecure actor. If I don’t get any kind of feedback at all, I’m like, “Oh my god!” I get in my head a little bit, and so even a word from the director, some kind of contact, I have that longing. So I expressed that to her before we started the process because she asked me, which not all directors do. When we got to set, I cannot stress how comfortable Alessandra made me feel. She made me feel like I’m a better actor than I am. She was like, “You are nailing it. Don’t worry. Okay, what about this?” You made me feel confident enough that I was then able to experiment. And because I’m a relatively young actor — it’s only my second feature — it was really meaningful to me to be able to work with someone that helped me build my confidence moving forward.

That’s such a beautiful answer, and that’s such an incredible quality to have.

SASHA CALLE: I would say, too, very gracious, very brave, because to be a woman who is a writer and director, and to be assertive and bold and caring, it’s a brave thing to do. I’m incredibly proud of you. It’s beautiful.

MEHIEL: Ale! Ale! [Laughs]

LESLIE GRACE: I would say your openness. I think even from the very first day, our conversations around every take, it was just very open. You were very curious as to what we thought a moment could be, and that skill of collaboration with an actor. There’s so many moving pieces, especially in your case where some of these things are loosely based on reality, I was just in wonder at how open and calm you were in some scenarios that were, really, a tight timeline, so I’m very, very grateful for that.

RENÉ PÉREZ JOGLAR: For me, it’s like, I never acted before, so you can imagine …

Oh, I have questions about that. I’m very impressed.

JOGLAR: She helped me a lot. And also, I saw on set, because I’ve been on sets in videos and in other stuff when I’m directing that it can get hectic and crazy, but she always had time. And it’s difficult when everything is very stressful to have that time, or at least show the actor that, “We have the time. Take your time.” That is important, at least for me it was. I’m starting, and with the kids, too. You were great with the kids. I saw you all the time with them because that’s difficult. You nail it.

Residente Found a Similarity Between Singing and Acting
Image via Sundance 

René, I want to go back to this being your acting debut. Was the itch to act always there, and if not, why now and why this film?

JOGLAR: I never wanted to act before. My mom is an actress back home in theaters. She couldn’t live by being an actress because there they don’t pay well, but I saw her, I remember seeing her, so in my head, I always had that about trying to act, but I don’t know, while I was taking a shower doing some scenes by myself. [Laughs] I’m writing a movie with Alex because that’s what I like, to direct, so I’m writing a movie with him and he invited me, and I was thinking about it. It took me a while — not too much — but I said, “Yeah, let’s do it.” And I read the script and I liked it. And then I started to feel wary, you know? And then I said, “Fuck it, I’m gonna do it.” I was talking about this yesterday, “Fuck it, but let’s do it well,” because that’s the way. You can’t say, “Fuck it.” I’m gonna do it well, so I went to acting coaches and they helped me at least to understand the script better. English is my second language, so it’s even harder for me. Alessandra gave me the freedom to speak in Spanish, but I wanted to say a lot of the lines in English most of the time.

It was a great experience. And something that I felt that I’ve been saying, but it’s because it’s true, is that things that I feel while I’m singing in front of a crowd, there’s something here [gestures to chest] that you feel, I started to feel it while I was filming, and it feels great. Something here. I like it.

Can you tell us the first moment you got that feeling on set? Was it a particular scene?

JOGLAR: There were different moments that I felt — thinking fast, like in the car accident. That scene was a little bit longer, but I remember that I was feeling so into the character and I was thinking about my son, that he could be there inside the car. That was the first time. My connection also was with my cousin, he was like my brother and he died last year, two of them. They were my same age, so I used that in that part. And that feeling, I feel it when I sing, I don’t know, Latin American songs, they are deep songs. So I think that’s one of the times, yeah.

René and Lío, I’ll throw this question to you, but anyone feel free to jump in. Based on what was in the production notes, I got the impression that you two are probably the ones to direct this question towards. What is it like working with a director with a personal connection to what your characters are going through? Is there anything that enhances the collaboration when you’re working with someone who has firsthand experience going through that, and also a willingness to share it with you two as artists?

MEHIEL: Yeah. The story isn’t exactly autobiographical, but it is loosely based on Alessandra’s life, and I think Violeta is the Alessandra in the film. From the first meeting that we had together when we were talking about certain challenging aspects of Violeta’s life and their relationship to their family, I could feel the truth of what your history was as you were talking to me. Because I think as artists we cultivate an objective distance from the work in a way. It’s like, “Okay, now it’s a script. It’s separate from me.” But because we immediately connected, I don’t know, at just an energetic level, I could feel the emotionality bubbling up. Even on set, there was this quality of, like, this feeling underneath, but you trying to keep it professional because you’re directing, and in a way, that’s exactly what Violeta’s doing. Violeta has this whole emotional life underneath of loss, of our relationship changing over the years, and this feeling of betrayal but also loving you, and guilt and shame, and all that. But Violeta is the one who’s like, “No, I need to take care of my family. I need to bring them back together. I need to keep my little sister safe. I need to maybe call my dad out, but maybe not. He’s not ready yet. I’m not sure.” So this kind of objectiveness that Violeta needs to have, Alessandra was needing to have that as an artist, and so I was weirdly able to just mirror that experience and it worked, I think, for the film, which was really cool.

Image via Sundance Institute

JOGLAR: Imagine, it was her father, so it was very difficult to try to do that. I asked her questions, but all the time she made me feel comfortable. I think maybe the accident part, you passed through that. I asked you a few questions, but you told me that you passed out when that happened, and I was like, “Okay.” I tried to imagine, to put myself in the position of what she told me about her father, and that’s what I did. I tried to be as natural and organic as I could be.

LACORAZZA: For me, it was also important, we created the characters together. They’re based on something, but you inhabiting the role, it made it something different. Same thing with you. Every one of you, we had conversations, I shared with you some of the things that it was based on, but then we’re making something together. It was a collaboration.

CALLE: You were very gracious in supporting us with information, but at the end, you kind of mesh and you create something from that information. We put our hearts and ourselves into it, and gave the best. And as per Lío was saying, we give Alessandra a nod, “Was it okay?” And Alessandra is like, [thumbs up].

Here’s my favorite question about that — does she have a monitor dance? Is there something you can catch her doing behind the monitor that signals to you, “I just crushed a take?”

MEHIEL: Okay, well there’s one thing. You look over and she’s like this [hunches over] and the monitor is right here [gestures inches from face]. I’m like, “How do you even see the image? You’re so close!” She’s like, “Mhmm, mhmm. Yeah. We got it. We got it.” [Laughs] Very serious. Like, not actually excited. Seriously excited.

CALLE: But the nod was, you know …

GRACE: All you need!

‘In the Summers’ Cast Found Beautiful Moments on Set Together
Image via Photagonist at the Collider Media Studio

There’s a lot of exceptional work in this movie. Every single department. The beating heart of this film, though, is the connection between all of your characters, so can you each pinpoint a moment on set when a scene partner gave you just what you needed and it helped you crush a tough scene or find something in your own character that you wouldn’t have been able to reach without them?

CALLE: Our dance scene was really important to me.

GRACE: That was such a good moment.

CALLE: It was a really beautiful and sincere moment between us. And I felt you and I felt myself, and that was really beautiful. Thank you for that.

JOGLAR: Thank you.

CALLE: And with Lío, being in the water park [laughs], that was very organic for us, and we had a lot of fun. Right after we called cut, we slid down the slide and then my extensions fell out. [Laughs]

MEHIEL: And they were just floating in the pool like a scary spider.

CALLE: A small child in the corner was like, “What is that?” But it was so funny, and that was a moment where I felt really connected and I felt really present. It just felt like we were having a great time.

MEHIEL: We became siblings, I think, that day.

CALLE: Absolutely.

GRACE: I saw it. I saw it on set. I got to be there for a little bit. It looked like so much fun. It was also so hot! So it was like, no acting required.

CALLE: No one’s asked about the heat in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

GRACE: But you can feel it when you watch it.

I’m surprised no one’s asked about the heat when we’re all freezing here.

GRACE: Yeah, right? “How was it being so warm?”

JOGLAR: The young girls, they helped me a lot the way they were. And also, Allison [Salinas], she’s the middle Eva, in a weird way, she helped me to be an asshole. The way she was answering and everything, it came out.

GRACE: There were moments, I only got to be there a couple of days, but that Yahtzee scene …

JOGLAR: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

GRACE: Allison, both of you, it was beautiful sparring, and there was so much I was feeling from her across that table. It was so complicated.

JOGLAR: She was great, and also Luciana [Elisa Quiñonez] when I was shaving. That scene, it was beautiful, and she was so great. It felt like she was my daughter.

Residente Instantly Made Leslie Grace Feel Part of the ‘In the Summers’ Family
Image via Warner Bros.

Leslie, you just brought up that you were only on set for a couple of days. There’s no simple answer to this, but it’s something I always wonder, and I think you do it quite well here; what is it like playing a supporting character with limited screen time where you are supporting the main characters’ narrative but while making sure that your character still feels whole?

GRACE: That’s a doozy!

I don’t know what the secret sauce is to that, but you do it.

GRACE: It’s having an amazing family on set that is welcoming, and that doesn’t always happen. I’ve been saying that all day. But it was just so beautiful to walk into that, because I really was only there for a few days. I was under the understanding that there was limited time to get some of these really important moments. It was so beautiful, I was sharing with someone else earlier, the first night that I landed, I was like, “Alright, where is everyone?” René was eating and we met up with them, and we crammed in a small car with two of our producers, Sergio [Lira] and Lynette [Coll] and myself in the back, pulled out his laptop and started showing me dailies. He’s like, “Your first day is tomorrow, so I just want you to feel like you know what’s happening and are a part of this movie.” I’ve been so fortunate to work with amazing people, but it was such a unique experience because I have so much respect for you musically already, but it was beautiful to have just that intimate moment to be invited in, in a sense. So when that happens, you kind of feel like people are giving you the liberty to bring what you have to offer. In a short amount of time, it’s difficult, but it’s also fun.

That’s so true. I would hope everyone has that experience on set. It’s so vital.

I’m going back to a follow-up question that crossed my mind forever ago. It’s something you brought up, René. You mentioned that you had done some scenes in the shower. It was just making me wonder, for fun, for each of you, when you were growing up and dreaming of becoming actors, what was the movie scene that you would reenact the most?

CALLE: I was singing all the time. I was singing in the shower.

GRACE: Anita in West Side Story, “America.”

JOGLAR: Most of the time I sing. But when I was a kid, I don’t know, Superman. I’m old school so Superman was the guy.

Rock solid pick there.

GRACE: Whitney [Houston] in The Bodyguard. Come on!

MEHIEL: I was a child actor for a period of time, I was on Broadway, and I don’t really remember this, but my mom reminds me that I learned everybody else’s part in the play, and I would perform it. And specifically the men, and I love that for my little trans self. But I was in this Tennessee Williams play called Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and the lead male character is this guy named Brick who’s on crutches, and so I had the costume department give me a set of crutches and I would go around in the Southern accent being Brick, which is just drunk and depressed. So yeah, I don’t know, I think I dreamed of being leading men as a kid.

Image via Sundance 

Alessandra, very big question for you. There’s something in your director’s statement that caught my eye. You were saying that while making the film, you kept asking, “Can we make amends for our missteps, our words, our actions — or will they forever define us? The closer I get to finishing this film the more I realize that the issue is with the question. Life is far more complex.” Given you made that statement as you were finishing the film, it was making me wonder, now that it’s done and you’ve watched it, do you have more clarity on that particular topic?

LACORAZZA: No.

I think that’s probably the right answer.

LACORAZZA: I think life is just complex, and you never really understand what someone’s going through. I think part of making this film, for me, was actually understanding my father. After he died, I was so angry. I had so much anger towards him for all of the shit he did and all the shit he put us through and the mess that he left, and so I think making this film and wanting to make him feel whole and big, and not shying away from the bad, but also embracing all the good, made me love him so much because it also made me realize that my trauma is his trauma as well. The car accident fucked him up as well.

CALLE: Wow.

LACORAZZA: So that has been important for me. It was like a healing thing, but I was like, no, the answers are …

GRACE: My heart is just like …

CALLE: Yeah, that was therapy.

GRACE: Just from knowing that was the question that you were asking and attempting to answer the whole way, that’s beautiful.

I’ll end with one more group question. It’s our Film.io question. As I said at the beginning, it’s a company that’s all about putting the creative power in the hands of the artists, which I think this industry needs to do more of. For each of you, can you recall a time when someone gave you creative control when you didn’t expect to get it even though you deserved it?

MEHIEL: Wow.

JOGLAR: In music, with my label, I always thought that they were gonna stop me, creatively speaking, but it was the opposite. Also, in my case, I think that I set it up, “This is the way I work and if you guys wanna be with me, you wanna sign me, this is the way it’s gonna be.” And I set that up since 2005 when I first signed with Sony. I’m free. I can do whatever I want. Whatever I want. I have done so much crazy stuff, and they let me because they trust me, but they trust me because they can see that I know what I wanna do and this is the way I am. So that’s important to show the people that you’re gonna work with and they’re gonna invest money in you, that you’re sure about what you wanna do, and you’re not like, “Well, I don’t know …” No. “This is me and if you don’t like it, I’m gonna go somewhere else.” So yeah, that’s how I earned that.

LACORAZZA: I think for me, I came up as an editor, and I think editors don’t get the credit they deserve because they really put the film together. Working with other directors that really trusted me as an editor in being able to lead a story in that way, made me, also, a better collaborator. You want to hire people that can do their job and can do it well. Obviously, it’s a shared vision, but you don’t have to micromanage, and so sometimes I’m like, “I’m actually gonna leave for a few hours. Do whatever you think and then we’ll come back and we’ll talk about it.” I think that’s important to kind of trust your collaborators.

Looking at how this film is structured and knowing you have an editing background makes all the sense in the world.

GRACE: Makes so much sense, right?

Sasha Calle Emphasizes the Importance of Having Female Leaders on the Set of ‘The Flash’
Image via Warner Bros.

CALLE: When I worked on The Flash, it was a dream for me to do all my stunts, but I didn’t think that I was gonna be able to do it. It was my first film. And I remember training, going in every single day, and our stunt coordinator, Eunice [Huthart], I remember she was up in these stairs and I looked up at her and I said, “Where’s my stunt double?” She was like, “You don’t need one.” I was like, “What? Don’t we need one … legally?” [Laughs] We did end up having someone there with us, but it was my dream, and I trained so hard. Again, it’s so amazing to have female leaders. It’s just so beautiful because they support and believe in your strength, and Eunice supported that the whole way through. That was something for me that I couldn’t believe that I was doing it, and I ended up doing all my stunts, which was awesome for me.

You crushed that role. Crushed it.

GRACE: You do crush it. You already know. You already know, friend.

MEHIEL: I think something that was really cool about this project is that Violeta on the page is written as a woman, and when I was first brought this project and got to meet with Alessandra and talk about it, I described to her, I’m like, “Hey, there’s a scene where there’s a sex scene and there’s intimacy, and then we’re at the pool. I’m a trans person who’s had gender-affirming top surgery, I use they/them pronouns, I’m very vocal about my queerness, and I want to be able to bring some of that to the table.” And Alessandra immediately was like, “Oh yeah, of course. Obviously.” And what was so cool about how it all evolved is that even though I was given the opportunity to sort of honor the fullness of myself, it didn’t have to become a plot point in the film. It just became a thing where, okay, Violeta, we see her cut her hair when she’s young and then when we see them in their 20s, they’re living their most authentic life, they’re thriving, they look great! [Laughs] I love the journey of the two sisters. So that was really cool. And in a way, it’s a kind of creative control because it was in honor of what I’m bringing uniquely to the part, so I was really grateful for that.

GRACE: I would say I’ve been fortunate to have multiple experiences within music where you work with people that are skilled at collaborating, and they allow you space to bring what you have to bring, in film, as well. But particularly with this film, I think back to your original question, because it was such a short amount of time and I felt like I was coming into something that already had momentum, it was beautiful to get that nod of not only validation but liberty to, “Hey, make Yenny yours.” Ale and I had a couple of conversations before she started shooting, and I got kind of an idea of who Yenny was, but she was so open. And then when I got to rehearse with [René], I never got to have that spontaneous, “Let’s try it out like we’re in theater. Let’s just go for it.” You’re such a great improviser, you know? That’s what you do! And you brought that to the set, and so to spar that way, I didn’t know I was able to do it, but it was beautiful to be challenged to do it in this film.

Special thanks to our 2024 partners at Sundance including presenting partner Film.io and supporting partners Pressed Juicery and DragonFly Coffee Roasters.