Screening of RTF Faculty Film, “I’ll Be There”

Join the Department of Radio-Television-Film for a special screening of the award-winning feature, I’LL BE THERE (97 min, 2023), which was written by RTF Chair Cindy McCreery and directed by RTF Professor Andrew Shea. Stick around after the film! Professors Shea and McCreery will be in attendance for a filmmaker conversation and audience Q&A.

ABOUT THE FILM:

Grace’s blended family navigates life against the surreal backdrop of a childhood hero’s death.

As the youngest of five children, Grace’s blended family was never easy to explain to her friends. As soon as graduation came around, she left the confusion and rawness of her home life behind. When the film finds her more than a decade later, she has built a new life for herself in Los Angeles and cemented her place as the outsider of the family. But her new life is upended when she learns that her older brother AJ has cancer and her now estranged family comes to town to support him. The film is set during the days after Michael Jackson’s death in the Los Angeles hospital that is next door to the L.A. Coroner’s Office, where the King of Pop was autopsied. As we unravel the family’s traumatic past, the pivotal role AJ played as Grace’s protector, and the chasm that now exists between them as adults, Grace comes to terms with the ghosts of her past and her former role as the family’s “Golden Child.” Michael Jackson played an important role in the siblings' childhoods and the irony of the timing isn’t lost on Grace. As she tries to reconcile her complicated relationships with her siblings, she’s also saying goodbye to the icon who was the soundtrack to that chapter of her life.