Director Rachael Abigail Holder introduces the premiere of her film “Love, Brooklyn” at the Eccles Theater in Park City. (Photo by George Pimentel/Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)
By Jordan Crucchiola
The overarching theme of the Love, Brooklyn debut in the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Dramatic Competition section boils down to one word: community. The community who pulled together over the course of six years to make this film. The community that was forged over the process of its creation. The community of film lovers assembling in Park City to watch it in the Eccles Theater on January 27.
As she introduces the film, senior programmer and chief curator of New Frontier Shari Frilot highlights Love, Brooklyn’s collective spirit as part of what resonated with her in the story. “This film really drew me in when I first saw it,” Frilot explains. “I hadn’t seen anything like this. It’s a love letter to the state of being among a creative class in Brooklyn. It’s such a compassionate, warm invitation to be in this fabric of life. It’s really such a lovely, soulful film, and a really impressive debut feature.”
The film comes from writer Paul Zimmerman and director Rachael Abigail Holder, herself a lifelong New Yorker who drew on her own life to infuse the film’s sense of culture with so much intimacy and nuance. “We wanted to show Brooklyn as Brooklyn,” says Holder, “and I’m proud that we were able to do that.” Holder continues with thanks to her producers, department heads, her cast and crew, her daughter (with whom she was pregnant during filming), and her husband, who has closely supported her throughout. She also thanks Steven Soderbergh, who provided the bulk of Love, Brooklyn’s financial support and got connected to the film through its producer-star André Holland. Holder made sure the room knew that her movie was a product made by all of these people close to her, not just one.
It’s a sentiment that Holland emphatically emphasizes when he takes the stage for the post-premiere Q&A. “It means so much that you all came out to show some love, and when I say this was a labor of love, I’m talking about community,” Holland tells the crowd as he promises not to cry, his voice rising with enthusiasm. “This was such a community effort. We didn’t have no money, y’all. We didn’t have no time. We had to call friends for locations. It was one of those. The movie itself is about community. That’s the story we were hoping to tell. This story is people fighting to hold onto their community against a rapidly changing landscape behind them, which is something I think we can all relate to. But this community stuck together and saw it all the way through. I’m gonna get choked up if I don’t stop talking.”
The story of Love, Brooklyn is a simple one: A trio of friends and sometimes-lovers hang out, go on dates, get in fights, and try to wade through critical impasses in their careers, all against the backdrop of their New York borough shifting rapidly with gentrification. It’s a slice of life told tenderly, but even a simple film can require a Herculean effort to bring to life. Producer Kate Sharp says, “We went out to everybody you would normally go out to in Hollywood, and everybody said no,” until Soderbergh’s support helped the film finally get off the ground. Sharp continues to explain how there were days when she was sure they’d never finish the film, but the community pulled through. And the all-hands-on-deck nature of production has clearly left an indelible mark of gratitude on those involved.
Actor Roy Wood Jr. says he “grew more inspired” being part of Love, Brooklyn, and he encourages artists to go out and find their tribes. “When you run in pack, you run faster, you run stronger, you run longer,” says Wood Jr. Actor DeWanda Wise tells the crowd she “grew in gratitude for sure, because there is someone else who can see who I am in my soul.” Wise adds, “That is to say that the work I most want to exist in the world, I know well the people who are making it happen.” And actor Nicole Behari says that Holder gave her “that freedom and encouragement to be quirky and slightly neurotic and bring out all the colors that are not necessarily asked for for Black women.”
To close out the Q&A, Holland concludes with one final thought as he continues to buzz with joy. “Finding your people, finding your community, is such an important part of [filmmaking]. I’ve felt that way, where making something is so hard. And it is hard. But it’s not impossible. In the case of this movie, this whole production was a consequence of us calling our community and saying, hey man, we want to do this thing.” The actor continues, “We want to put a love story into the world. We want to put the camera on Black people and just let them exist, and not have a story that spins on trauma or violence or car chases. It’s kind of crazy to say, but maybe in a way that’s a radical thing, just to watch Black folks live and love and try to figure shit out. And I love that.”
