A picaresque odyssey through America’s underbelly.
A picaresque journey through the cities and woods of the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. Lillian, a high school senior from South Carolina, gets her first glimpse of the wider world on a class trip to Washington, D.C. Separated from her schoolmates, she embarks on a fractured road trip in search of America. Along the way, she falls in with a variety of strange factions–anarchists, neo-nazis, filmmakers, religious zealots–each living out their own alternative realities in our present day.
A veritable ‘Alice in Wonderland-esque’ odyssey through the underbelly of America. Captured in Sean Prince Williams’ characteristically dreamy and fluid 16mm camerawork, this is a lighthearted satire of America’s factious cultural climate with an unflappable, eye-rolling teenage heroine as our guide.
: “A thoroughly pungent, scabrously funny kind of nightmare picaresque.”
Isaac Feldberg rogerEbert.com 02/06/2023
Rising Star Award, Denver International Film, 2023, us
Jury Prize, Revelations Prize, Deauville Film Festival, 2023, fr
Prize for Best Screenplay, Bucharest International Film Festival, 2023, ro
Ghent International Film Festival, 2023, be
Sean Price Williams
: Sean Price Williams is an American cinematographer and film director known for collaborations with Alex Ross Perry and the Safdie Brothers. Born in Delaware and based in New York City, Williams has been described by the New Yorker as “the cinematographer for many of the best and most significant independent films of the past decade.” The Sweet East is his directorial debut.
