Level Ground Is Going to Sundance

Framing Agnes, the first project in the Level Ground Production Incubator, is now a feature documentary premiering at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival!

In 2013, Level Ground Co-Founder and Executive Director Samantha Curley went to Outfest to scout films for the very first Level Ground Film Festival. There she met filmmaker Chase Joynt at a screening of his short film I’m Yours. Now, almost a decade later, the two are premiering their first feature documentary, Framing Agnes at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

Keep reading for a little more history about how this project came to be, how Level Ground is involved, and what this means for the future of our community.

Level Ground programmed I’m Yours and installed Chase’s exhibit Resisterectomy at the 1st Annual Level Ground Film Festival in 2014. The two stayed in touch and Joynt returned to the Level Ground Festival in 2017 with Vivek Shraya.

Chase Joynt and Vivek Shraya at the 2017 Level Ground Festival

In the summer of 2017, Chase called Samantha and asked her if she wanted to produce a new film project he was working on that was going to shoot in Los Angeles. While Samantha had never produced a film before and wasn’t sure she could do it, Chase said something to the effect of: “Well, I’ve seen what you do at Level Ground and 100% think you can produce this film. Let’s just try it and see what happens.” 

In the fall of 2017, the two shot that film, Framing Agnes thanks to several friends, favors, and a free location at the Level Ground office (then in Pasadena). Now officially collaborators, Chase and Samantha started having all kinds of conversations around art, experimentation, and hybrid world-building. With Level Ground as a production partner, Framing Agnes went on to premiere at Tribeca in 2019 and the project became the inspiration behind our Production Incubator program. The journey of making this film revealed to Samantha and Chase that artists and creators need a different kind of access to production resources in order to build and develop new projects outside traditional studio/funding structures.  

Chase Joynt and Samantha Curley at the 2018 Level Ground Festival

When Framing Agnes received funding in 2019 to become a feature film, Chase and Samantha started dreaming about forming a production company together to support future film projects and collaborations, always with the goal of leveraging the production company to support Level Ground (the nonprofit). Earlier this year, they realized they could start a distinct company and formalize a relationship between it and the nonprofit.

Years of collaboration and experimentation started clicked into place. This month, with the support of the Level Ground Board of Directors, we’ve officially launched Level Ground Productions – a collaboratively run production company that supports, develops, directs, and produces film and media projects that critically and creatively engage the most important issues of the contemporary moment. The production company is a separate for-profit entity that exists, in part, to support the Level Ground Collective and the emerging artists and creators in our community. 

Some folks from the Framing Agnes team on the red carpet at Tribeca in 2019

Both the Level Ground nonprofit and the Level Ground production company reflect the same values and mission, including a commitment to experimentation, collaboration, and empathy. Similar to how a handful of friends started Level Ground (the nonprofit) in 2013, Level Ground Productions has been formed out of collaboration and friendship. The company currently has 4 projects on its slate, with plans to expand in the coming years.

Join us in celebrating news of the Framing Agnes World Premiere at Sundance and stay tuned for a lot more exciting updates and details about the future of Level Ground – both the Collective and our brand new Production Company!