Exclusive: Sundance Trailer for ‘Royal Road’ Melds ‘Vertigo,’ California History and Lesbian Love

Sundance world premiere “The Royal Road” looks to be one of the most ambitious documentary projects at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Watch the trailer below.

From Frameline Film Festival cofounder and LGBTQ film exhibitor Jenni Olson comes this deeply personal cinematic docu-poem that intertwines three story skeins: a primer on the Spanish colonization of California, the unrequited pursuit of two women in San Francisco and Los Angeles and a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock’s SF-set “Vertigo” along the lines of Chris Marker’s 1983 avant-garde documentary essay “Sans Soleil.”

Featuring a voiceover cameo from playwright Tony Kushner, the film has an official synopsis from Sundance:

“Deceptively simple landscapes serve as the framework for the film’s lyrically written voiceover, which combines rigorous historical research with a stream-of consciousness personal monologue and relates these seemingly disparate stories from an intimate, colloquial perspective to tell a one-of-a-kind California tale. A fascinating and unlikely reinvention story, ‘The Royal Road’ simultaneously explores cinematic spiritual channeling, the conquest and colonization of Mexico and the American Southwest, fading historical Californian urban landscapes, and the passions found in butch identity to achieve an achingly beautiful and poetic defense of remembering.”

Sundance Film Festival Screenings:

Friday, January 23 @ Noon, Temple Theatre, Park City (World Premiere)
Saturday, January 24 @ 4:00PM, Redstone Cinema 2, Park City
Monday, January 26 @ 6:45pm, Broadway Centre Cinema 3, Salt Lake City
Thursday, January 29 @ 7:00PM, Holiday Village Cinema 4, Park City