ZOLA (Sundance 2020 Premiere)

by Le Anne Lindsay, Editor

World Premiere ZOLA –written/directed by Janicza Bravo and playwright Jeremy O. Harris.

Normally it’s a book, magazine article, memoir etc… being the source material for a screenplay, but I believe this is a first, to option a story told entirely over Twitter – 144 tweets posted by Aziah “Zola” King on October 27, 2015, where she asks the Twitter-verse if they wanna hear a story about why she and this bitch fell out?

Next thing you know #TheStory went viral and soon caught the attention of filmmaker #JaniczaBravo.

Basically, ZOLA is a recounting of how Zola (Taylour Paige) (pretty, 20-something black female) meets Stefani (Riley Keough )(pretty 20-something white female), it seems one exotic dancer can always recognize another, and they strike up a friendship, which goes horribly wrong when Stefani invites Zola on a road trip to Tampa to dance. Strippers can make more money traveling to other cities to work the pole, as they’re considered “new talent” to customers tired of the same ol girls. I don’t think any trouble would have come of the trip if the girls were on their own, Unfortunately, they are accompanied by Stefani’s dim-witted boyfriend Derrick (Nicholas Braun ) and a driver (Colman Domingo) later found out to be Stefani’s pimp.

What results is a hilarious, terrifying, sassy, disastrous descent into female sex trafficking. But thanks to Zola’s no-nonsense, world-weary attitude and the filmmaker’s ability to short-hand each scene in a way that keeps the tale dynamic, you truly feel like you’ve gone on a little adventure with this crew and somehow care about them despite the debauchery.

You can read the RollingStones interview with the parties involved from 2015 –

Bravo is a Sundance alum. Her short “Gregory Go Boom” won the short film jury prize in 2014. Her first feature “Lemon” had it’s Sundance World Premiere in 2017.

Sundance announced on 1/27/2020 that A24’s Zola has sold the international distribution rights to Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA). SPWA will distribute the film in all territories except North America, China and Japan. A24 is planning a summer release of the film.