Kelly Marie Tran joins Summertime as executive producer

Good Deed Entertainment today announced that Kelly Marie Tran (Raya and the Last Dragon, Star Wars: The Last Jedi) has signed on to executive produce the spoken-word film, Summertime. Directed by Carlos López Estrada (Raya and the Last Dragon, Blindspotting), the film follows 27 young Angelenos’ interconnected stories told through spoken-word poetry over the course of one day in Los Angeles.

“Watching Summertime was like falling in love for the first time. It’s a love letter to Los Angeles and to the many incredible artists and individuals living in it,” said Executive Producer, Kelly Marie Tran. “I can’t wait for audiences to fall in love with these incredible poets — fully, completely, and inexplicably — the way I did.”

Inspired after attending a spoken-word workshop featuring 27 high school performers from the LA-based non-profit, Get Lit, Estrada proposed a collaboration to develop the performers’ work into a loose, interconnected narrative, allowing the emerging poets to express themselves and their relationship to the city in an authentic way on screen. As a result, Summertime’s diverse cast and writers average 21 years old, the majority making their feature film debut.

“I feel so lucky to have gotten to know Kelly over the last year while working together on Raya. She is not only impossibly talented, but her complete devotion to the project and the community involved in it was invigorating. I am in awe of her as an artist, a person, and an advocate – and am thrilled to know that she will now join our Summertime journey of bringing the poet’s stories to as many people as possible.”

With its Slacker-inspired structure, fanciful form and magical realism, Summertime is a moving narrative experiment — part contemporary musical and part sociological art. The young poets featured radiate vitality, honesty, and profound emotion, and through their art, collectively represent hope.

“Kelly’s passion for these incredible young artists is contagious, and we’re thrilled she was just as touched by their stories and poetry as we were,” said Scott Donley, CEO and Founder of Good Deed Entertainment. “We’re especially excited by her commitment to learn how to write her own poetry by attending a Get Lit workshop herself.”

Summertime had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and will be released in select theaters in NY and LA on July 9, 2021 with a theatrical expansion planned for July 16, 2021. The film is produced by Kimberly Stuckwisch, Jeffrey Soros, Alisa Tager, Simon Horsman, Carlos López Estrada and Diane Luby Lane.